A CHARITY is bidding to help school children learn about rape and pornography as part of a strategy for “ending violence against women and girls”.

Rape Crisis has produced a £100 pack for teachers that also covers domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriages, prostitution and human trafficking.

Its author said young people were increasingly aware of sexuality and issues had to be put in context – but a campaigner called the scheme ‘irresponsible’.

The pack is available for 11 to 18-year-olds but author Laura Colclough said teachers were expected to use their discretion over what is taught.

She said: “Gone are the days when young people are not sexualised. Most if not all see the music videos, they see the culture, they surf the internet.”

The pack encourages mixed lessons to discuss issues. One asks pupils to spot myths such as ‘women enjoy rape’.

Another reads ‘women ask for it by wearing short skirts, drinking alcohol etc’.

Youngsters are also encouraged to act out a role play, including four-letter words, where a boy and girl recall a drunken encounter.

There is a need for the pack, particularly with the explosion of the net, she said. Such lessons should be part of the curriculum, she said.

Ms Colclough acknowledged that some parents would have concerns but said: “The fact is it is there.”

She said: “It’s not from an angle of supporting sexualisation or pornography but examining the link between those things and sexual violence.”

There is an increasing ‘sexualisation of culture’ she said and pointed to the recent furore over the sale of padded bras for seven-year-olds.

She estimated 60 per cent of 12-year-olds have seen hardcore pornography on the internet.

Yet she said take up from schools had been slower than in Oxfordshire for the pack, produced by the Wycombe, Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire branch of the charity.

She said: “Maybe the political climate is different in Oxfordshire, maybe there is more willingness to look at the issues.”

Charity director Christina Diamandopoulos said the pack was designed as part of a strategy for “ending violence against women and girls”.

She added: “We need to be addressing all the issues with much younger people.

“Twenty-three per cent of women have had sexual violence of some kind.”

She said the new pack is an updated version of one which had been successfully trialled in other areas such as Oxfordshire, and among its supporters were Buckinghamshire Healthy Schools and the Government’s Violence against Women and Girls strategy.

Yet Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “This sort of material is too explicit for schools. It is irresponsible.”

He said he expected ‘a lot of parents to be extremely perturbed’ by the plan.

He said: “It’s giving what hopefully are fairly minority activities massive publicity and suggesting that they are almost part of mainstream culture.”

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