U.K. Schools Told Sex At 13 Is ‘Safe And Healthy’, Per Government-Backed ‘Traffic Light Tool’

Schools in England have received guidance suggesting that 13-year-old children having consensual sex is normal behavior.

These guidelines, which can be used in sexual education classes, say it should be considered a “safe and healthy” part of growing up for children that reach their teenage years to have sexual relationships, according to Telegraph.

BBC News reports that this guidance comes from the government-backed “Traffic Light Tool” created by sexual health and advice service Brook.

The Traffic Light Tool is endorsed by the Department for Education and uses the green, amber (yellow) and red colors of a traffic light to identify behaviors in children that are safe and healthy as well as those that are not.

According to the official Brook website, green behavior reflects “safe and healthy sexual development” while red behavior is “outside of safe and healthy.”

For children between the ages of 13 and 17 years of age, the Traffic Light Tool classifies “having sexual or non-sexual relationships” as well as “consenting and/or penetrative sex with others of the same or opposite gender” as green behaviors.

Other green behaviors listed for this age group include: sexual activity (such as hugging and kissing), sexually explicit conversations with friends and also making the choice to not be sexually active.

During a recent meeting of the Commons Education Select Committee, Sarah Carter from the Family Education Trust claimed that some of the lessons taught in sexual education are not lawful — specifically targeting the Traffic Light Tool.

“[The Traffic Light Tool] states that young people who are consensually sexually active from the age of 13, this is normal behaviour and development, whereas actually the law states that young person should wait until they are 16 at least, never mind if they are ready or not.”

The supplementary guidance used for sex and relationships education (SRE) consists of such resources as the Traffic Light Tool and was developed by the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) Association.

Joe Hayman, the chief executive of the PSHE Association, also appeared before the Education Select Committee to speak on behalf of the association.

Hayman stated that the only challenge when it comes to having well-trained individuals teach these types of subjects is the fact that they have to “deal with children’s realities.”

“It’s really, really important that a dictatorial-from-the-front lesson on what one should and shouldn’t do is less likely to have an impact and I think we’ve got to start from where children are, their reality.”

Hayman continued by clearly distinguishing between what the PSHE Association was and was not trying to accomplish with such resources as the Traffic Light Tool.

“There’s no-one in our community who feels we should be trying to sexualise children, or any of those kinds of things. What we want is children to develop healthy and safe relationships and it’s really important that teachers are provided with the necessary training in order to do that.”

Joe Hayman further stated that each of the resources produced and published by the PSHE Association for sex and relationships education “were clear about teaching the law.”