Experts stress need for sex education
Experts stress need for sex education
JAKARTA (JP): Experts reiterated the need for sex education
in the schools to counter the impact of erotic media on
unprepared young readers.
In a discussion on Saturday on sex exploitation in the mass
media, Zubairi Djoerban of the Pelita Ilmu Foundation, a non-
governmental organization campaigning for HIV/AIDS prevention,
and psychologist Ami Siamsidar Budiman of the Indonesian Planned
Parenthood Association (PKBI) agreed that children should be
prepared with the right information on sex.
"It's impossible to completely abolish pornography in the
media... the only way is to prepare children," Ami told The
Jakarta Post after the discussion at Al-Azhar Mosque in South
Jakarta.
The discussion's organizers included the Institute of Family-
Friendly Media and Al-Azhar's Youth Islamic Study Club.
"Unlike what many people think, sex education is not going to
teach children how to seduce men or women... but it's going to
teach them about their organs, their functions," Ami said.
She said the present situation was ironic. "There's no sex
education in the schools, but mass media provide children with
detailed sex stories with erotic pictures. This will certainly
cause a negative impact on children."
She said PKBI's suggestion that sex education be provided in
the schools, raised in the 1980s, was turned down by the
government and religious leaders. Parents also voiced objections,
she said, adding that sex education was considered "too risky"
for children.
Informally, PKBI provides sex education through
extracurricular activities at schools which agree to host its
programs and at its centers in 24 provinces.
"I understand (the objections)... even the term sex education
worries parents. Considering the sensitivity of the term, it can
be changed to health reproduction," Ami said.
Zubairi said he received a report a few weeks ago which
revealed that 50 percent of first and second year students at a
junior high school outside of Jakarta had viewed pornographic
movies.
The students watched the films in their houses during their
vacation when their parents were not at home, he said, noting
several of the films were "borrowed" from parents.
Zubairi expressed concern that a number of students said they
preferred to watch the movies with girlfriends or boyfriends.
One of the students even took his younger sibling to watch the
films, Zubairi said.
He said parents were confused when their children asked them
why they were angry when finding them watching pornographic
movies.
"For parents, it's not easy to answer questions like, 'what's
a blue film', or 'what's wrong with watching a blue film,'"
Zubairi said.
According to surveys conducted by PKBI in 1996, their was a
high incidence of abortion among women between the ages of 15 and
24, which it attributed to a lack of sex education. Among the
areas with the highest number of abortions were West Java with
101, East Jakarta with 41 and Bali with 421.
"These figures reflect a lack of access to sex information.
Some of the girls were even under 15," Ami said.(ste)