The UN weighs in on sex education – MSN

I WORKED for three years as a communication officer at the United Nations Development Program in the Philippines, with travel in the Asia-Pacific. I could have worked there longer, but I accepted an offer to be the head of news research at TV5 and train several cohorts of reporters on news writing and production.

Then and now, the United Nations has been strong on freedom of expression and age-appropriate information for young people. Thus, I was not surprised when the UN called for combating the misinformation going around about comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).

They also clarified the role of various UN agencies that support the curriculum-based process of teaching and learning accurate and age-appropriate information for the young.

The UN supports the current efforts by the government and its partners to address the challenges facing the country’s development work. Among the issues it supports are campaigns against adolescent pregnancy, maternal mortality, HIV infection and various forms of gender-based violence.

This is the Philippines, which registered the highest number of Pornhub users in the world. We are also the second top source in the world of sexually exploited children online. Add to that our soaring rates of child sexual abuse, rape and incest, along with one of the highest adolescent birth rates in the world. And yet, the powers-that-be don’t want age-appropriate sex education for the young.

Among these people still living in the caves are former Supreme Court justice Meilou Sereno, who suddenly became an expert on Philippine culture, and our senators, who turned tail and withdrew their support for the bill since it is — surprise! — election time.

However, research has shown that many young people make the transition from childhood to adulthood with inaccurate or incomplete information about sexual and reproductive health. This leads them to be vulnerable to coercion, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy.

“This is why the UN supports the rollout of comprehensive sexuality education around the world, in a culturally appropriate manner,” the UN said this week.

Jose Roi Avena, deputy representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the Philippines, said that CSE addresses a “complex area of intersection between health, education, prevention and social development based on research, data and analysis of social behaviors. In recent weeks, however, misinformation about CSE and the role of various United Nations agencies has circulated in the Philippines.”

The UN in the Philippines supports the work of several stakeholders, including the Department of Education, enlightened legislators, the Council for the Welfare of Children and the Child Rights Network “in clarifying what the CSE is — and what it is not.”

Avena added: “The UN encourages all Filipinos to verify information that they are exposed to… The UN shares accurate scientific knowledge and relevant lessons learned and good practices, which has been adapted by the Department of Education to be culturally sensitive and age-appropriate.”

However, in this la-la land called the Philippines, several groups, lawmakers and President Marcos Jr. thumbed their noses at the proposed CSE program contained in the Senate bill that seeks to prevent adolescent pregnancies.

Education Secretary Juan Miguel Angara quickly quashed rumors and assured everyone that no “inappropriate concepts” related to the CSE program would be taught in the public schools.

The allegedly “woke absurdities” that the president disapproves of in the bill are not in the text of the bill and even in the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, clarified Avena. “We have read the bill, and we have not seen any mention of these at all… It’s not in the bill.” Various groups — who have not read the bill — opposed the inclusion of masturbation for very young children and the “exploration” of different genders at a young age.

But if we really want real talk, all these topics can be easily found online, which a majority of our young people — even children — can access, especially if their computers don’t have firewalls or the parents are not there to guide them. Or if not online, young people get information about sex from their peers, who are also mostly “educated” online about these issues. And we all know that not all the things found online are accurate or even verifiable. Thus, the need for a comprehensive sex education in our schools.

“International standards are meant to be able to guide on what is the best scientific evidence available in many contexts. But at the end of the day, it is really the decision of the country as to how it will adopt these standards. The element of contextualization needs to be highlighted,” said Avena.

We can’t just let social media and the young people’s peers do the educating for them. The CSE program will train teachers systematically, so there will be a layer of protection for the young in terms of getting correct information, especially in this Age of Fake News.