Move over, “where do babies come from" - there's a new awkward question in town.
Move over, “where do babies come from" - there's a new awkward question in town.
Move over, “Where do babies come from?” – there’s a new awkward question taking the primary schools by storm.
A sex and relationships educator who has spent more than 30 years working with kids has shed light on the surprisingly grown-up question she’s now frequently bombarded with.
Rowena Thomas told Australia’s ABC News that “nearly every day” an inquisitive child will ask her, “What does the number 69 mean?”, reports the New York Post.
Thomas went on to explain that youngsters hear the naughty number being laughed about in the playground or talked about by older children. Not wanting to seem out of the loop with their friends, children will often quiz their parents or trusted adult supervisors about what it means.
It comes as kids are being exposed to pornographic content at increasingly younger ages thanks to unmonitored internet access and a growth in explicit material that has found loopholes in online parental regulation.
In New Zealand, most kids are given their first phone before the age of 11, reports Census at School, and Classification Office research shows that 1 in 4 young New Zealanders first see pornography by age 12, with most not seeking it out when they first see it. Around 66 per cent of children between the ages of 14 and 17 had seen pornography, with 37 per cent seeing it in the previous six months.
Thomas advises parents to answer any questions that may pop up calmly and matter-of-factly, while using age-appropriate information to encourage the child’s curiosity, as opposed to shunning the conversation.
“Parents think that immediately they have to go into talking about oral sex, but that’s not what the kids are asking. The kids are just curious, the number 69, what on earth does it mean?”
“Age-appropriate” can differ from child to child, she says. “But every child is definitely mature enough to be talking about this stuff, in an age-appropriate way, according to where you think your child is at.
“We [also] need to be talking about the dangers of pornography, just like we talk about the dangers of swimming in a rip or riding a bike without a helmet.
“Parents aren’t talking about it because they don’t think that their nice child would watch pornography – very nice kids watch pornography because they’re curious.”
They get shown stuff, they get air-dropped pictures, they’re maybe at a friend’s house … and they want to fit in. Photo / Getty Images
However, she says “not every kid is watching porn, but a couple of kids in the class are watching porn, you can tell in nearly every class”.
“They get shown stuff, they get air-dropped pictures, they’re maybe at a friend’s house … and they want to fit in.”
The AAP also referenced data that shows teenagers who have strained relationships with their parents or have lived under an authoritarian parenting style are more likely to look deliberately for pornographic content.
