The importance of sexual education cannot be overstated because maturation and reproduction are integral parts of human development. Although media is filled with sex-related content, sexual education is promoted only in 11% of television shows (King & Regan, 2018). Sexual education includes hormonal changes, physical transformation, reproductive health, and contraception (Awaru et al., 2018). Poor sexual education among adolescents may result in an increased number of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and psychiatric illnesses (Brayboy et al., 2018). Although the number of school courses on sex education declined, information widely available online could compensate for this decrease (Brayboy et al., 2018). However, many Internet sources are not credible and even dangerous for young people. Therefore, it is crucial to provide them links to websites with reliable data and guidance.
My first exposure to sexual education happened when I was eleven years old. My neighbor, a medical student, brought me a brochure about puberty, where I found clear explanations about hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle, physical transformation in adolescence, and reproductive health. This information was timely and valuable because I was concerned about changes in my body that began a year earlier. I discussed this information with my mother, who also reassured me that it is a normal physiologic process. Although many TV shows that we watched with my family had sexual content, I was hesitant to discuss it with my parents. It was easier for me to read about reproductive health online. My neighbor was always open to explain everything to me using medical terminology. She also noticed that I started to develop body dysmorphic ideas at that time; thus, she recommended me some psychology books and websites that were useful to overcome some of my fears and stereotypes.
References
Awaru, A. O. T., Idris, R., & Agustang, A. (2018). Sexual education at high school Sinjai East. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Sciences (ICSS 2018), 226, 944–947. Web.
Brayboy, L. M., McCoy, K., Thamotharan, S., Zhu, E., Gil, G., & Houck, C. (2018). The use of technology in the sexual health education especially among minority adolescent girls in the United States. Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 30(5), 305–309. Web.
King B. M., & Regan P. (2018). Human Sexuality Today. Web.