Norway: Sex-ed urged for 5-year-olds

Sex-ed urged for 5-year-olds - Aftenposten

A clinic that specializes in sex education and offers free birth control for youth in Oslo thinks sex education should begin while small children are still in local kindergartens.

"I think that the last year of kindergarten is absolutely the time to start providing simple information and answers to the many questions children have," Siv Gamnes, head of the clinic (KSO, Klinikk for seksuell opplysning) told radio station P4 on Tuesday.

"There's a lot of things they're wondering about, and we can answer why boys and girls are different, and how a baby is created," Gamnes added.

Most Norwegian children start attending kindergartens, or day-care centers, as toddlers and continue until formal schooling begins at the age of six. Gamnes doesn't think age five is too early to start talking about sex.

That's because she's experienced a lot of misinformation among the youth who seek help at KSO."By the 10th grade, when many start getting sex education, many of the students are already sitting with information that's wrong," she said. "We have to 'un-teach' them before we can start teaching them."

Starting early with sex education can help prevent children from getting wrong information that they can go around believing for a long time, Gamnes said.

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