Sex education through teen magazines

Teen magazines doling out information about sex may not be going down so well with teachers, but school inspectors in the UK have praised them for being a positive source of advice for teens who can’t speak to their parents about the subject.

The mags have raised the ire of teachers, and have been banned in some schools across the UK, but the report on personal social and health education in primary and secondary schools by Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has commended the mags for tackling sensitive issues when parents and teachers fail.

"Many young people say that many parents and some teachers are not very good at talking about the more sensitive issues such as sex and relationships," the Telegraph quoted the Ofsted report, as stating.

"They feel that parents and teachers leave it too late and do not talk about such issues until they have reached puberty or have started feeling sexual desire," it added.

The inspectors insisted that while some of the magazines, whose target audience was adolescent males, was at times sexist, they still helped provide useful information. "For example, the increase in magazines aimed at young men, while at times reinforcing sexist attitudes, has helped to redress the balance of advice available to young people," the inspectors said.

"The 'problem pages' in magazines remain a very positive source of advice and reassurance for many young people," they added. However, they admitted that mags such as these were also complicit in spreading the perception that all young people in the UK are sexually active.

"The range of topics and the explicitness in dealing with them have increased in many magazines read by young people. While many now stress the importance of safe sex, some communicate, inaccurately, the perception that all young people are sexually active," they said.

Ofsted also reported that according to data from the schools health education unit, parents were less likely than previously to be seen as the main source of advice.