The California Board of Education Wednesday approved new statewide guidance for health education, including recommendations for teaching sex education that align with the California Healthy Youth Act, the state’s comprehensive sex ed law.

Board members unanimously approved the framework after nearly 200 speakers offered their opinions, including scores who’ve been mobilized by conservative religious groups to protest the sex ed guidance. They focused primarily on books they deem too explicit and aspects of the framework that address the sexual health of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students and those questioning their sexual identities.

The final version of the framework did not include recommendations of several of the books that had generated the most strenuous objections from opponents.

This is the first update of the framework since 1994 and it is written to be compatible with the Healthy Youth Act, which went into effect in 2016. The law covers a broad array of sexual health issues and is one of the most all-inclusive sex education laws in the country.

In addition to lessons on birth control and sexually transmitted diseases, the law covers the meanings of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sex trafficking. Also, the lessons must include material specifically geared toward LGBTQ students.

A provision in the law allows parents to opt their children out of the sex ed lessons, but they cannot opt them out of lessons focused on the rights and achievements of LGBTQ people in other contexts.

The Healthy Youth Act has generated opposition since it was passed by the Legislature in 2015, but it has intensified this year with the framework up for adoption. In March, hundreds of parents and other residents from communities throughout the state voiced their objections to the framework during a public hearing held by the Instructional Quality Commission, which is an advisory body to the state board.

While the most vocal opponents object to almost all aspects of the law, including the lessons addressing the needs of LGBTQ students, they’ve been most critical of the books that had previously been recommended in the framework. Some of the books include cartoon depictions of naked people and male and female anatomy. They also have explicit descriptions of sex acts.

Even after state officials displayed the specific books that were removed from the framework, a number of the speakers still used their time at the podium to read passages from them. Others read passages that they objected to from books that are still in the framework.

One of the approved books “shows a girl checking out her own genitals,” said a female speaker. “My daughter does not need to see cartoon pornography.” Others described the framework as “sexual indoctrination” and “sexualizing youth.”

So what? If kids don’t understand it, how can they be affected by it? Even if young children can’t understand sex or its role in relationships, the images they see can leave a lasting impression. It’s a basic premise of marketing that what we watch, read and direct our attention toward influences our behavior. And, as any marketer knows, sex sells. That’s why we see products and services that have nothing to do with sex being marketed in increasingly sexualized ways.

 

Children as young as 8 and 9 are coming across sexually explicit material on the Internet and in other media. Although research is just beginning to assess the potential damage, there is reason to believe that early exposure to sexual content may have the following undesirable effects:

 

Early Sex. Research has long established that teens who watch movies or listen to music that glamorizes drinking, drug use or violence tend to engage in those behaviors themselves. A 2012 study shows that movies influence teens’ sexual attitudes and behaviors as well. The study, published in Psychological Science, found that the more teens were exposed to sexual content in movies, the earlier they started having sex and the likelier they were to have casual, unprotected sex.

 

In another study, boys who were exposed to sexually explicit media were three times more likely to engage in oral sex and intercourse two years after exposure than non-exposed boys. Young girls exposed to sexual content in the media were twice as likely to engage in oral sex and one and a half times more likely to have intercourse. Research also shows that teens who listened to music with degrading sexual references were more likely to have sex than those who had less exposure.

 

Why are teens more likely to have sex after being exposed to sexual content in the media? Just as we read specific books and show educational movies to our children in hopes that they learn lessons from the characters, the media provides a type of sex education to young people. Media messages normalize early sexual experimentation and portray sex as casual, unprotected and consequence-free, encouraging sexual activity long before children are emotionally, socially or intellectually ready.

 

High-Risk Sex. The earlier a child is exposed to sexual content and begins having sex, the likelier they are to engage in high-risk sex. Research shows that children who have sex by age 13 are more likely to have multiple sexual partners, engage in frequent intercourse, have unprotected sex and use drugs or alcohol before sex. In a study by researcher Dr. Jennings Bryant, more than 66 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls reported wanting to try some of the sexual behaviors they saw in the media (and by high school, many had done so), which increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

 

Sex, Love and Relationship Addictions. Not every child who is exposed to sexual content will struggle with a mental health disorder, but research shows that early exposure to pornography is a risk factor for sex addictions and other intimacy disorders. In one study of 932 sex addicts, 90 percent of men and 77 percent of women reported that pornography was a factor in their addiction. With the widespread availability of explicit material on the Internet, these problems are becoming more prevalent and are surfacing at younger ages.

 

Sexual Violence. According to some studies, early exposure (by age 14) to pornography and other explicit material may increase the risk of a child becoming a victim of sexual violence or acting out sexually against another child. For some people, habitual use of pornography may prompt a desire for more violent or deviant material, including depictions of rape, torture or humiliation. If people seek to act out what they see, they may be more likely to commit sexual assault, rape or child molestation.

 

Preserving Our Children’s Youth

Early exposure to sexual content in the media may have a profound impact on children’s values, attitudes and behaviors toward sex and relationships. Unfortunately, media portrayals do not always reflect the message parents want to send. Here are a few ways that you as a parent can ensure your message is heard:

 

• Know what your children are watching, playing and listening to and take advantage of teachable moments to discuss any inappropriate content or behaviors with them.

 

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• Set and enforce limits around screen time.

 

• Make use of Internet filters and parental controls.

 

• Share your family’s values and expectations regarding sex and relationships.

 

• Talk to your child about media representations of sex, relationships and gender roles and teach them to question the accuracy and intent of the messages they receive.

 

• Model healthy, respectful relationships and self-worth.

 

For most families, banning media from the home isn’t a realistic option. After all, most 8- to 18-year-olds devote an average of seven and a half hours to media in a typical day, according to a 2009 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and more than half of that content contains sexual images or references. The goal isn’t to avoid the issue, but to approach it head-on so that your children learn about sex and relationships from their most trusted source: you, the parent.

 

The media has done enough damage to our children, now the Board of Education wants to spread this disease to our children and to overexpose them to information that would change who they are and turn them into monsters of society.

 

 

Opposition to sexuality education goes back as far as the 1960s. And while the goal of censoring comprehensive sexuality education has remained constant, the approach and rhetoric have evolved over the years. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, critics of sexuality education focused their efforts on attacking all such programs in the public schools, with the goal of removing them from the curriculum.

 

Other charges aimed at sexuality education: its purpose was to “undermine the morals of American youth”; it promoted pornography, should not be taught without also teaching religious morality, and such instruction should be left to the family.

 

The Moral Majority pushed to ban sex education programs in public schools if the programs did not require parental consent. The group also opposed sex education programs “which reject Judeo-Christian rules” or which hint at “liberal sex education.”

 

The major goal of nearly all sex education curricula being taught in the schools is to teach teenagers and children how to enjoy fornication without having a baby and without feeling guilty. This goal explains why the courses promote an acceptance of sexual behavior that does not produce a baby, such as homosexuality and masturbation. This goal explains why they encourage abortions and all varieties of contraception…. This is why the courses shred the girls of their natural modesty…. This is why they censor out from sex education courses both moral training and the truth about the physical and psychological penalties for sin.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court has long made clear that the Constitution prohibits public school-sponsored prayer and religious indoctrination; however, they do not restrict the limitation of sexual knowledge to minors that can lead them to becoming sexual harassers, child molesters, and abusers in their household.