How did these Ghanaian teens come to learn about sex, and what age is appropriate for children to get sex education? Listen to what they told our GirlZ Off Mute teen reporter Chelsea Boakye. A youth counsellor expounds further on the subject. Share your thoughts on the entire discussion in the comment section below. #GirlZOffMute #77Percent #DWAfrica
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Young people like me and my peers are constantly being bombarded with sexual content these days
00:05and social media makes it even worse.
00:08So, when is the right time for us to access sex education that makes us aware of ourselves
00:13and better prepared for adolescence and adult life?
00:21Where did you first hear about sex and then where exactly and what exactly did you hear about?
00:26I heard about it when I was in Primary 6 and then it was when our teacher was teaching us about
00:31adolescence. It was just like, we shouldn't have sex because we are young. They didn't actually say
00:36many things about it.
00:37I heard about sex from my sitting partner. She was actually telling me about her experience.
00:43She had sex and then she was telling me about it. She told me about the pain she went through
00:48because that was actually the first time she had sex and then how she bled and then all those things.
00:53I first learned about sex in the house. So, I accidentally entered my mom's room and saw my mom
01:00and dad on the bed and I didn't understand. So, I went to tell my siblings and they explained to me
01:06that it is sex but they didn't tell me what actually was going on. They just told me that it is sex.
01:12I first heard about sex in the house. My parents were talking about my cousin. My cousin went to
01:17have sex with this girl and she got pregnant. So, I was like, oh, what do you mean by sex?
01:22And they were like, they can't tell me more because of my age. I was like eight at that time.
01:26So, they can't give me more information. But sex is about two people, boy and girl having fun.
01:31I was watching a movie with my mom and the characters were engaging in sexual related
01:39activities and then my mom told me what they were doing and she told me not to engage in such
01:44activities because it could lead to so many things such as the sexually transmitted diseases
01:51and then also teenage pregnancy. Do you think the information you got on sex was too early or you
01:56think it was too late for you? As at seven, it was too early because it made me more curious.
02:02It was too late. I wanted to know about it but then my mom kept delaying. I felt I wanted to know
02:08more about it. I was eight at that time. So, I was curious. I started asking more questions about sex.
02:13I always go back to school and ask about sex. She was like, is that what they teach in school?
02:20I felt like I got knowledge about sex very late at eight years old. Eight years was very
02:26late for me because my peers knew more. When you were constantly asking her, did she give you the
02:31accurate information that you needed? She didn't want to upload it on me. So, every time I asked, she gave
02:36me something small. My time, I see it to be normal. The time I got to know about it because I entered
02:41the room and I've seen it. You can't do nothing about it. I've seen it. Either you tell me more about it
02:48or I go and practice and know how it feels like. Also, they didn't tell me, they didn't go
02:53into details. I kept on asking myself questions. So, I got some time. I was asking my peers
02:59what is sex about. They were giving me rough answers. At what point did you satisfy your curiosity?
03:04I went to search for it. The meaning, the definition. I went through to see if that was what I
03:10actually saw on the bed. I went through the images, videos to see, yeah, okay, this is what I saw.
03:16I feel it was too late for me because I was 11 when I heard that. I feel my parents
03:23should have educated me on it as I was growing up. I feel my parents were the ones I was
03:28supposed to hear that from and not my colleagues. It wasn't too late and it wasn't too early because
03:33I was 12 at the time and I was in primary six. Then, I started menstruating. So, I thought it was
03:39very good for me to know about sex. At what age should children be exposed to sex education
03:45and what context should they look like? I think as early as three, children should start
03:51learning things about themselves and about their sex and get oriented in those aspects.
03:57It should be holistic. We should have a broader context of the topic
04:03handled in our school levels. Children should be made to learn most of this sex education trends
04:11so that they become fully aware because they are involved and children, we are told, start
04:16very early in this stage. So, we should, you know, make it as part of the curriculum
04:23and we should pay particular attention to it.