A lack of sex education is forcing children to try to learn about relationships on pornography websites, MSPs have been told.
Failing to address the problem means young people are growing up with a distorted view, according to Sheila Taylor, chief executive of the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People.
“It’s important that we teach our children in school settings how this works, how it manifests itself in society, what those triggers and indicators are, so that they recognise them,” she told politicians investigating child-sex exploitation in Scotland.
“When I was a child, it was a ‘stranger danger’ and ‘don’t take sweets of a stranger’ message. We all knew it. We don’t do it now and we don’t teach young people well about healthy sexual relationships.”
Academic research shows children visit pornography websites to fill in the gaps in their knowledge.
“If that’s your education, then you’ve got a distorted view,” she told members of Holyrood’s public petitions committee.
Convener David Stewart said: “From the evidence we heard today from the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People it is clear that more should be done to ensure that all children are informed and educated on how to recognise the behaviours that can lead to their exploitation.”