Laura Bates , the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, has called for sex education for children to start from the age of three. Bates, 37, founded the Everyday Sexism project in 2012, when she was 25, inviting women on social media to detail sexist encounters they’d had. She also wrote the books Men Who Hate Women and Fix the System, Not the Women.
Earlier this month, prime minister Rishi Sunak was met with backlash over plans to ban all sex education in primary schools until year five. Lessons would then focus simply on conception and birth, with no explicit discussions of sexual acts until they are 13 and over, according to reports. Domestic violence, coercive control and sexual violence would also not be discussed until children reach 13 under the guidance, due to be announced by education secretary Gillian Keegan.
Children would also not be taught about contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and abortion until age 13. Speaking about the renewed debate around the issue at Hay Festival, during a panel chaired by The Independent ’s editor in chief Geordie Greig, Bates said there is “great evidence” advocating for “good quality, age-appropriate sex education from the beginning”. When Greig asked if she meant sex education should be available for children as young as three years old, Bates replied: “Absolutely.
Now, that might sound controversial, right? “And that’s because people go, ‘You can’t talk to a three-year-old about sex, but when yo.
