The thread has moved on, and much light has been shed. Perhaps it's too late to add this, but I'm going to anyway because it took a while to write.
There are several subjects that ought to be covered in school now that all 14 year olds are more likely than not to have watched porn videos over the internet.
Apart from the basics of consent, resisting pressure, and recognising the sad fact that someone who consistently ignores your boundaries does not have your best interests at heart, I’d also like to see more detailed information about the serious risks involved when copying stuff seen in pornography. Young people don't believe everything they see in a film, they understand about special effects and stunt tricks, but they don't seem to realise that the porn they watch is just as fake, and just as dangerous to emulate.
Wouldn't it be easier to resist being pressured into unwanted anal sex if all pupils had been given a thorough education in what actually happens when someone suffers an anal prolapse, or how hard it is to participate fully in a normal, active, happy life when your anal sphincter leaks and can no longer be trusted? (Because that shit is the opposite of sexy). These are the kind of facts that give a different perspective, and that help bolster your resistance if someone you thought cared about you keeps applying pressure long after you've said no. It might help some young girls recognise the warning signs that are obvious to more experienced women, and dodge an abusive relationship.
I’m astounded by the number of otherwise rational adults who believe that an enema, and a thorough washing of the target area, reduces the risk of infection to such negligible levels that rimming becomes a perfectly safe sexual practice.
Don’t they teach microbiology in schools? All washing does is make it less likely you’ll taste or smell shit, and in the case of enemas (or, even more horrendously, taking the shower head off the shower hose and sticking the hose up your bum) actually increase the risk of infection. Virus, bacteria and other pathogens will still be present in sufficient numbers to transmit disease.
Humans do not have canine gastrointestinal tracts, we did not evolve to lick each others anuses.
When most people worry about picking up a sexually transmitted disease they think of herpes, genital warts, gonorrhoea, syphilis and hepatitis.
So I really wish, for the benefit of public health, that schools would to go into detail about the realities of fecal-oral transmission, to ensure that not a single pupil leaves school ignorant of these basic facts.
Making sure that each pupil is fully aware that washing “freshens” the area, but does not reduce the risks, and that every time you use your tongue on the anal sphincter of another person you are exposing yourself to the risk of catching Salmonella, shigella, E. coli and campylobacter, (all serious bacterial diseases that can be passed on from symptomless carriers), as well as parasites, such as Trichomoniasis, Giardiasis, Amebiasis and Cryptosporidiosis, (truly horrible and in some cases impossible to treat) as well as the more mundane tape worms and threadworms that thrive in the human bowel. As well as all the usual STIs listed above.
Everyone deserves to know these facts because the internet is full of articles blithely claiming that shaving, washing with soap, and not indulging when you have cold sores or haemorrhoids makes rimming as safe as any other sexual practice!
I’d use it as an opportunity to discuss health and safety at work legislation, the principles behind safeguarding, how before health and safety regulations were enforced only a few hundred people died each year as a result of workplace accidents, so why did we bother to legislate when it inconveniences the vast majority of people who won’t get hit on the head but still aren’t allowed on a work site without a hard hat?
Which could lead on to a discussion of how come, if sex work really is work, a job like any other, health and safety regulation doesn’t seen to cover sex workers? Why the people being exploited in pornography aren’t provided with dental dams and surgical gloves when the script requires anal “play”? Considering also how unlikely it is that people who have worked in the industry for years, and who are responsible for writing the scripts, could possibly be unaware of the consequences when they insist on the participants being unprotected?
An equally educational discussion could focus on why people do not use barrier protection when they take part in highly dangerous sexual activities. Why is taking offence so often a gut reaction when a new partner insists on using a dental dam? We’ve worked so hard to get young people to accept condoms as a natural part of exploring sexuality, but dental dams are rarely mentioned, and never seen in pornography. Can younger mumsnetters tell me, are they hauled out along with the condoms in modern sex education?
We still have a long way to go if reaching for a dental dam is seen as an insult to a partner’s personal hygiene, rather than mature and responsible sexual behaviour that shows respect for all concerned.