At LIFV, we are aware that, without prevention, Internet access can have harmful consequences for young people. This access via smartphones, the main communication tool of adolescents, can lead them to accidentally or deliberately to the pornographic sites.
The sources of exposure are unfortunately numerous: the lack of control over access to these sites, despite the law established for the protection of minors, or the appearance of “porn pop-up”, pornographic advertising windows which open unintentionally. Not to mention the risk of exposure on social networks such as Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat.
This accessibility represents a risk for the mental health and the emotional and sexual development of adolescents. If not enough appropriate education is provided to them, pornography becomes an ordinary subject and keeps them away from the true sexual education.
To fight these risks, LIFV has set up certain projects adapted to the age of the pupils and based on the French national education program:
• “Drawn consent”, a comic strip competition on consent. By bringing together the health-art-biology themes, a competition on the theme of consent will be offered to students from the 3ème grade and older. Art and humor become means of understanding how essential communication and respect for others are in life. Such is the goal of the sex education of the official program of French national education system.
• The installation of a library in the infirmary to freely consult books, articles and other documentation recommended by specialists of the education of emotional and sexual health, as well as by the Ministry of National Education.
• Active listening in the infirmary for dialogue, while respecting privacy and intimacy.
Lucie Duhoux
School nurse