Siobhán O'Neill says it’s deeply concerning young people are learning about sex from ‘pornography’ and social media due to inadequate sexuality and relationships provision in schools.
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00:00RSE also has an important function in terms of preventing and detecting child abuse and
00:05exploitation and also violence against women and girls, both of which are causes of mental
00:09illness.
00:10So that's the lens through which I'll be looking at RSE today and I'm also using trauma-informed
00:15practice a bit in this too.
00:18So looking at our strategy for tackling violence against women and girls, it's strong.
00:23It sets out a really important goal of changing attitudes, behaviours and social norms to
00:28tackle the root causes and it includes a forum to coordinate work on equipping and
00:32supporting families, children and young people to enjoy healthy, respectful relationships
00:38using the curriculum and that includes RSE.
00:41So I'm asking the committee to look at whether that forum has been established.
00:44There's no, I don't think there's evidence of it just yet but that's really, really important.
00:49So we need to know what's happening with that forum because this is the area where you have
00:53a low-cost, universal intervention that fits with a strategy that does need to be implemented
00:59and it's recognised as part of that effort that we're all making to eliminate or reduce
01:04violence against women and girls.
01:07So let's look at current provision.
01:09It is excellent in places and there are examples of that but it's inadequate in others and
01:14we have little data on the effectiveness of the provision generally other than surveys
01:19of pupils which can paint a really worrying picture.
01:23The Secondary Students Union of Northern Ireland survey found that 77% had not heard
01:28of RSE.
01:29They might be getting it but it hadn't been labelled as such and only 22.8% had been adequately
01:36taught about consent and that is worrying.
01:39In research conducted by Belfast Youth Forum, young people described the RSE at school to
01:44be basic, unhelpful, useless and biased.
01:48Several studies show that pupils would like to know more about LGBT plus identities and
01:52that those subjects were delivered poorly or not at all and this really matches what
01:57I'm hearing from young people themselves.
02:00Young people from the LGBT plus community report that RSE is not inclusive of their
02:05relationships and does not address generally the challenges that young people feel regardless
02:10of their sexual orientation.
02:14So one survey reported that young people are going online to find information on relationships
02:18and expectations about their role in relationships and what they do and when that happens they're
02:25faced with a world of untrustworthy and potentially dangerous sources of information and it is
02:32really concerning when you hear stories of young people learning about sex from pornography
02:38and TikTok.
02:39That shouldn't be the case.
02:41Our children deserve better than that.
02:43They deserve the best quality information on how to have safe, happy, healthy relationships
02:48and to receive accurate information about issues relating to their gender and sexuality.
02:54So sadly misinformation regarding the content of RSE abounds and many subscribe to the myth
02:59that RSE will result in an increase in sexual activity and of course the opposite is true.
03:04Most young people already have access to online information including pornography, harmful
03:09masculinity influencers, all the rest, it's all there for them.
03:12By equipping young people with communication skills and accurate information, good quality
03:16RSE reduces early sexual activity and unplanned pregnancy.
03:20The reality is that high proportions of young people are already engaging in sexual activity
03:24and a strong, consistent RSE programme is necessary to reduce the health risks and protect
03:29young people's wellbeing.
03:30So thanks for your attention through this, I hope I haven't gone too far over time, I'm
03:34pleased that you're looking at this in the inquiry, firmly of the belief that a strong,
03:38inclusive and positive RSE will improve the mental health of children and young people
03:42here and I'd be happy to work with you on making that a reality.