Children As Young As 5 Should Understand The R.H. Bill

It’s been a decade since the non-stop argument about the Reproductive Health Bill but over the past year, the R.H. Bill argument has gained momentum what with the pro-R.H. Bill faction pushing for change and choice and the anti-R.H. Bill faction moving heaven and earth just to stop the progress of the argument.

            One of the attacks done by those who are against the R.H. Bill is the all “moral” question of “do you want your children as young as 5 years old to learn about sex?” Now I’ve been contemplating about whether that’s a real question or a sarcastic one. When someone asks me the question of whether children as young as 5 years old should learn about sex I would probable answer “Why not?” To be honest, I don’t really believe that the concept of sex should be kept from children because it is as natural as breathing. Why should we keep the concept of sex hidden away from children? Eventually they learn about it and start exploring anyway right? Like any overprotective and over-reacting parent, the only reason why people believe that exposing the concept of sex to children is that it risks exposing children to the reality of the world. In a sense, isn’t that the same as keeping children ignorant?

            Why should we keep the concept of sex hidden from children? Even at the young age of 5, kids do already have some questions related to gender and sex. As the kids grow older, the questions grow more mature and complicated. Do parents really want to wait up to the point where they cannot communicate with their children anymore to explain the concept of sex? True they may not fully understand sex when you explain it to them at such a young age but the least you can do is educate them that having sex at a very young age is wrong.. It’s actually the right age to teach them about what’s bad about sex at such a young age because that is when they start processing information and learning about what is right and what is wrong. Explaining sex to teenagers would be a more futile effort because by that age, they would already have their own versions of what is right and what is wrong and you are less likely to get through to them.

            The problem here is that parents try to avoid the topic of sex as much as possible because it feels too awkward talking about it with their children. But is it really a good idea to keeping hiding that information? Would you really want to wait up to the point where they’ll learn about sex from their friends until you decide to step in? Who do you think teenagers will listen to more; their parents or their friends? Unfortunately, these kids would learn about sex and reproduction through friends are often as dumb about the subject as the person they got the information from. Talk about the blind leading the blind. And it is at this point that the whole barrage of misinformation and myths start and sometimes will culminate into teen pregnancy or other complications regarding relationship with another person.

            Yes, I believe that children should be exposed to sex as early as possible. If we do that, we might just create a new culture where the concept of sex is not such a secret to everyone. It shouldn’t even be a secret because everyone does it.