OPINION: Stop shying away from sex ed

EASY ACCESS: With kids having access to technology, they will be able to Google the things they're curious about - so it's up to parents to make sure they're well informed.

Recently, I came across an article about a US children's author who had published a picture book featuring a transgender princess.

The writer, Greg McGoon, has penned a fairytale in which a young prince is uncomfortable in his male body -- but is transformed into a princess and assumes a leadership role.

Wonderful -- a children's story with diverse characters reflecting the make-up of modern society, as opposed to Disney princesses.

But then I read the comments.

"Can't we just let kids be kids without indoctrinating them into these people's sick agenda, and shoving sexual orientation in their face?!"

I was reminded of this on meeting sexuality educator Rachel Hansen, who will be running a workshop on gender and sexuality for parents of preschoolers (see page 4). Rachel's aim is to empower parents to answer with confidence when their wee one asks where babies come from.

Which is brilliant. But, over the years, there has been plenty of uproar about sex education for children. Similar to the commenters objecting to the transgender princess, parents say it doesn't belong in primary schools because children are introduced to the adult world before their time.

Last year, a Lower Hutt mum pulled her nine-year-old son from a sexuality education class as she believed the content was "beyond his years" and he should be allowed to "just be a kid".

Earlier, there were complaints from parents who believed the information for their pre-teens in sex ed was "too graphic".

It's understandable -- we don't want our youngsters' carefree, idyllic childhoods to be burdened by such thorny issues. We want our children to enjoy tea parties with dolls, not have to consider complex sexual identities.

But this is the age of 24/7 media, and kids are bombarded with information. Sexuality is everywhere -- in advertisements on the back of buses, smuggled into kids' programmes as innuendo, discussed in news bulletins about rape and pet desexing.

In the past few years, we've had the Roastbusters, legalised same-sex marriage, and a more visible transgender community, all highly publicised.

Kids are curious -- they will ask what words like "gay", "gender" and "consent" mean. And, if we insist on supplying them with smartphones and iPads, there's plenty of information at their fingertips.

What would you rather do? Ensure your child is given correct, appropriate information? Or learn about sex by Googling it, or looking up Youtube videos?

Sexuality can be a terrifying topic for parents, but as adults, it is our responsibility to (being age-appropriate, of course) to inform our kids.

If we shield children from this topic, all it does is make sexuality, already steeped in stigma in many societies, taboo and a source of shame and embarrassment.

And indoctrinating children into a world of transgender princesses? Surely introducing them to the concept of accepting difference isn't such a bad thing?