And the latter increasingly resort to magazines

Apr 11, 2007 13:12 GMT  ·  By

With all the progress of our society, fathers still imagine that their daughters are virgin deep in to their 20's or that their sons are polite with the young ladies.

The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) signals that the parents are not able to provide sexual education to their children so that the youngsters search the necessary information in magazines.

A new approach made by Ofsted points out that the magazines come with valuable information for teenage boys even if they can be explicit and sexist.

The report shows the important role played by the school nurses that offer the morning after pill to the youngsters. "Parents need to put their embarrassment to one side and talk to their children. No matter how difficult it may be, parents and teachers have to discuss sensitive issues with their children and pupils to help them make the right choices as they grow up," said Miriam Rosen, Ofsted's director of education.

The new study was made on 350 school inspections over the last five years, and it has proven that many youngsters perceived their parents as missing the proper knowledge and skills to tackle the sensitive issues.

Pubescent girls are less prone now to communicate with their mothers about sex issues. "Parents often seek to approach personal, social and health issues with their children tangentially, if at all. As well as failing to provide the information themselves, some parents express concern about the suitability of information that young people receive from other sources, such as magazines, even when these could be useful", signaled the report.

"For example, the increase in the number of magazines aimed at young men, while at times reinforcing sexist attitudes, has helped to redress the balance of advice available to young people. The range of topics and the explicitness in dealing with them have increased in many of the magazines read by young people. While many magazines now stress the importance of safe sex, some communicate, inaccurately, the perception that all young people are sexually active," Ofsted said.