The taboo around talking to young people about the effects of online porn means the issue is being “woefully neglected” by educators, a leading headteacher has said.
Nick Hewlett, head of St Dunstan’s College in Lewisham, south London, told School Management Plus that while schools had got “much better” at dealing with issues around misogyny and toxic masculinity, they were not confronting the true causes, including readily available and often violent pornography.
Hewlett called for the government to provide greater clarity and consistency for schools over when and how to teach young people about the issues emerging from the ‘distorted reality’ of online porn.
He said that sex and gender education had become very “charged” following recent controversies, but that educators still had a “duty of care” to help young people develop their values and make good choices.
Mr Hewlett spoke out as St Dunstan’s prepares to host a conference for independent and state sector school leaders about the effects of online pornography on young people, and how to teach about the issue in schools.
The conference comes after a report from the Children’s Commissioner published in January 2023 revealed that half of children who had seen pornography had seen it by the age of 13. Seventy-nine per cent had encountered violent pornography before the age of 18.
A total 47 per cent of all respondents stated that girls expect sex to involve violence, especially strangulation.
Mr Hewlett, who said the statistics were “deeply shocking” said: “It’s about breaking down those taboos and saying actually why is this a taboo, why are we being so British about it? Let’s actually acknowledge the reality of it, we’ve got the data now…let’s acknowledge this and see how we can better educate to it.
“My fear is that we are responding to the consequences and not dealing with the causes. Schools are getting much better at dealing with the aftermath of misogyny and gender toxicity, but actually are there some fundamental causes in there that are triggering this outlook? And I would argue that the online porn space is a fundamental one.”
He said that despite sex education being a politically charged issue, school was still the best place for children to be educated about the issues around online porn as it was an “uncomfortable conversation” between parents and their children.
He said: “I know some people would disagree with me on that and say it’s not the school’s place to be having that conversation but therein lies a fundamental disconnect – I believe that schools are the only place where you can ensure you have a consistency of educational approach.
“Do we have a problem within schools on how we are approaching this, absolutely we do and that’s why we’ve all read the stories in the press around this. We need guidance, we need help, we need the department for education to give greater clarity around what they expect in this area.”
He said he wanted those who attended the conference to see the extent of the problem and recognise that there would be “a significant problem as this generation moves through” if there was no push to tackle it.
He added: “I hope that we also go away as a collective body recognising that what we do in our schools educationally needs to extend to these very live topical issues, it has to. To put our head in the sand and say we can’t find time for this because we need to make sure we’re giving enough time to English and maths is a nonsense.”
Speakers at the conference will include Nick Hewlett, Chanel Contos, founder of Teach Us Consent, Cindy Gallop, creator of MakeLoveNotPorn and Jess Alder, programme director of the Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationship Initiative at the Boston Public Health Commission.
The conference will take place at Mansion House on Tuesday 20 June 2023. To book, click here.