Sex and consent: How parents can talk to their children

ARTICLE SUMMARY 

How can parents talk to their children about sex and consent.

Talking about consent, relationship and sex with your child is a must but, how do we do?

In this article they talked with Ruth Heneke Eliot who works in the charity School of Sexuality Education and with Cecile Gwilym, head of training and sexual violence prevention, and they answer some common questions that involves these topics.

They expose that this has to be worked at any ages where you can talked about different topics. It has to be built progressively.

Also they talked about unwanted physical contact and how to give the message that this is incorrect. They expose that you have to know why they are doing it and not just punish them, because they will relate the action with the punishment they get instead that  reflect on what they have done and the consequences it may have on the other person that was affected.

Additionally, they touch other topics such as:

• What can you do if your child is being sexually harassed?

They expose that it is extremely important to let your child know that they dont have to be subjected to this behaviour and to feel safe in and outside the school. Also it is very important to report this cases to the school management team.

• Is sending nudes illegal?

This questions has two parts: First, you have to be atleast 16 years old and the most important thing, it has to be consented and it is a crime to send them to another person or upload it into a website.

• What if I´m too embarassed to talk about sex, nudes or anything like that?

This is something normal, very very few parents talk to their children about this topics on a positive way but you have to be prepared as it is not just one conversation, it has to be talked more than once as it is a crucial topic for a teenager.

In my opinion, I agree with everything that is exposed in this article because in this society the subject of sex is taboo, but it is a very important issue for teenagers, since the only example they have to follow is porn and let's say that this is not a good example. We have to talk about it without any qualms, advising them and trying to talk about it naturaly and making it clear that sex is something that involves two people, and that we must always have great empathy and put ourselves in the place of another, in order to prevent wrong actions that can do much harm to third parties.

We also have to support teenagers who have suffered abuse and to be clear that they are not alone, but all of this can be prevented with a good previous education that should be given in schools about sex, couples and intimacy.

In conclusion, we have to talk about it with our children as this will prepare them to be exposed to a subject that is always very complicated for everyone at the beginning but that is part of life.