It is Society’s Responsibility to Provide Sex Education.

1. What is Sex Education?

Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and other aspects of human sexual behavior. Common avenues for sex education are parents or caregivers, school programs, and public health campaigns.

Sex education may be taught informally, such as when someone receives information from a conversation with a parent, friend, religious leader, or through the media. It may also be delivered through sex self-help authors, magazine advice columnists, sex columnists, or sex education web sites. Formal sex education occurs when schools or health care providers offer sex education.

According to YouGov "Sex Education" survey among 14-17 year old teenagers, 40% of all 14-17 year olds in the US are sexually active, 20% of those surveyed had their first sexual experience at 13 or under, 74% of sexually active 14-17 year-olds have had a sexual experience under the age of consent. After evaluating this statistics it is quite obvious that teenagers start their sexual life earlier than it is supposed by their parents and other responsible adults, and lead it in a rather active way. So it is very important that now we come to realize the importance of sex education. The goal of sex education is to help school-going children build foundation as they mature into sexually healthy adults. Sex education would thus seek to assist young people in developing a positive view of sexuality, provide them with information and skills about taking care of their sexual health, helping them to make sound decisions now and in the future.

2. History of Sex Education. Sex Education Worldwide.

Prior to the twentieth century, sex education was rather haphazard. Given the expectation that girls would remain chaste until their wedding night, sex education for them did not seem pressing until the eve of matrimony, when their mothers sat them down and explained sex and reproduction; contrary expectations for boys often meant that a young man's male relatives or co-workers would take him to a brothel to initiate him into the mysteries of sex.

In the 1830s, however, various health reformers and ministers in the United States and in England began to publish a flood of pamphlets and books to inform and fortify the young men. These works were typically great stews of theological, nutritional, and philosophical information, but all aimed to help readers control their sexual urges until they could be safely expressed in marriage. Despite these small steps toward education, later reformers complained that a "conspiracy of silence" about sexual matters existed into the early years of the twentieth century.

In the 20th century, adolescents were not given any information on sexual matters, with discussion of these issues being considered taboo. Such instruction as was given was traditionally left to a child's parents, and often this was put off until just before a child's marriage. Most of the information on sexual matters was obtained informally from friends and the media, and much of this information was of doubtful value. The deficiency of such information became increasingly evident by the increasing incidence of teenage pregnancies, especially in Western countries after the 1960s. As part of each country's efforts to reduce such pregnancies, programs of sex education were instituted, initially over strong opposition from parent and religious groups.

Outside Western Europe and the United States, sex education remained largely informal until concerns over a population explosion and the AIDS crisis prompted international organizations such as the United Nations to become involved in educating residents in Africa and South Asia particularly about contraception and prophylaxis. Although the religious opposition there has been muted, educators have often met with resistance from governments unwilling to admit that their populations were experiencing problems with AIDS, and from male traditionalists reluctant to allow women greater control over their own sexuality. Political battles in the United States, too, have affected the shape of sex education in the less-developed regions of the world, as American conservatives at the dawn of the twenty-first century attempted to use U.S. funding to shift the content of international sex education programs away from contraception and towards abstinence and a more moralistic approach to sexual relations.