A mother in England was furious after she learnt her 11-year-old daughter was told to define hardcore pornography among other inappropriate terms in her take-home assignment.
Tutors at Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull, England instructed the 11 to 14-year-olds to define pornography, soft pornography, hardcore pornography and transsexual pornography, as well as female genital mutilation, wet dreams, trafficking, male circumcision, breast ironing and more as part of their homework in their Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE).
The kids were also asked questions about alcohol, drugs and smoking.
The mother, who preferred to only to be identified by her surname, Mrs Taylor, said if her daughter had searched these phrases via Google in order to define them, the results would have “destroyed her mind” and “scarred her for life”.
The mother of three, Mrs Taylor, explained that she had received insights after being warned about the homework in a Facebook post by another parent before her daughter began working on it.
The 34-year-old mother mentioned her daughter is still very much a child and naive.
”She was only in primary school last year living her best life, now she is being asked to search for hardcore pornography.
“She’s 11, she should be doing stranger danger, and don’t share your info online, but genital mutilation is another thing. It was asking about male circumcision, breast ironing…I don’t even know what that is myself. I’m just thinking is there kids out there who have done this work? You would be scared at what you saw. At 11 I was playing with Barbies. If they have seen it they can’t unsee it.
“Now it’s making me think what they are learning about at school that we don’t know about. We only know about this because they’re home learning.”
Mrs Taylor said she hates to think what would have occurred if her daughter had searched the terms online and seen the results. She also said that the kids were told to use Google and that she did a Google search of the term “hardcore porn” herself and some of the images that came up were “disturbing”.
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The mother of three said some of the work were reasonable, and encourages learning about sexuality, but a lot of the work was “completely inappropriate.” She also mentioned that she wasn’t against sex education for the kids as there are some things that they need to know but not “things that would destroy her mind”.
Other parents and guardians said they had the same feeling and were also ‘disgusted’.
Leon Dagon, 25 noticed the work when he was helping his 13-year-old sister sort out her work. He raised awareness via Facebook to warn other parents.
He said: “When I first opened it I thought, ‘Wow, this cannot be a 13-year-old’s home work’. What kind of teacher would set that? Luckily I found the work otherwise she would have typed this stuff into Google and you know what would have come up and that makes me feel sick. I felt sick thinking she was going to go onto the computer to search it up.
“I’ve taken the work out, this is not happening on my watch. I’m appalled. I get sex education is vital in anyone’s life but when there’s raw topics like this it’s something else.”
After complaints from parents were raised, the academy sent out an apology for any harm caused.
“I am genuinely sorry if parents or students have unnecessarily researched any of these phrases and for any offence caused. I have asked that any future materials of this nature have a clear statement ensuring students and their parents are aware of any potentially sensitive content and will ensure all materials are fully age appropriate,” Chay Bell, the Academy principal said.
Bell also notified that the PSHE materials that were shared with students was produced in line with government guidance, the PSHE Association Programmes of Study and the Sex Education Forum’s definition of Sex Education.
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