The concept of sex education

Sex education is a planned, age-appropriate process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. That is how it is defined in the International Technical Guidance from UNESCO and five other UN agencies (2018). Its aim is to help people look after their health and well-being, build respectful relationships, consider how their choices affect others, and understand and protect their rights.

What it is and what it is not

Sex education is not a one-off talk, nor is it limited to anatomy or avoiding risks. Nor does it tell anyone how to live their sexuality. It is ongoing, evidence-based support that provides information, skills and values for making independent decisions. It starts from a broad view of sexuality as a human dimension present from birth to old age.

The comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) approach

The international consensus is built around comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). UNESCO organises its content into eight key concepts, equally important and taught together:

1. Relationships.
2. Values, rights, culture and sexuality.
3. Understanding gender.
4. Violence and staying safe.
5. Skills for health and well-being.
6. The human body and development.
7. Sexuality and sexual behaviour.
8. Sexual and reproductive health.

According to the same guidance, good-quality CSE is scientifically accurate, incremental, age- and developmentally appropriate, curriculum-based, comprehensive, based on human rights and gender equality, culturally relevant, and able to develop life skills.

Main aims

• Building knowledge of one's own body, emotions and identity.
• Encouraging informed, responsible decisions about relationships and sexual life.
• Helping to prevent sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies, violence and abuse.
• Teaching consent as the basis of every relationship.
• Fostering respect, empathy, equality and the recognition of diversity.

A lifelong process

WHO notes that the UN guidance suggests starting formal teaching at around age 5, and the WHO Standards for Europe (2010) include guidance from birth. In childhood it is about naming the body, recognising emotions and learning about privacy and boundaries (see sex education for children). Topics return in greater depth at each stage, in what UNESCO calls a spiral curriculum, and remain useful in adulthood and later life.

What the evidence says

UNESCO has commissioned two major reviews: one in 2008, covering 87 studies, and another in 2016, covering 22 systematic reviews and 77 randomised controlled trials. Both conclude that curriculum-based programmes delay first sexual intercourse, reduce the number of partners and risk-taking, and increase condom and contraceptive use. Sex education, in or out of school, does not increase sexual activity or risk-taking.

Common myths

• "It encourages young people to start earlier." The evidence shows the opposite.
• "Promoting abstinence is enough." WHO notes that abstinence-only programmes are ineffective at preventing early sexual activity and risk-taking.
• "Children are taught about sex." With younger children, sexuality education means talking about the body, feelings and safety, not about sex.
• "It replaces the family." It complements it: WHO recommends that information comes from several consistent sources.

Family, school and rights

Families pass on values and trust; schools ensure accurate information that reaches every pupil equally. In Spain, the law makes relationships and sexuality education part of the curriculum throughout compulsory schooling. In France, a 2001 law requires at least three sessions a year, yet a 2021 report by the French education inspectorate (IGESR), based on a survey in one education authority, found that fewer than 15% of primary and lycée pupils received them; since the 2025–26 school year a national programme has applied from nursery to the end of secondary school.

Receiving this education is also a right: the Declaration of Sexual Rights of the World Association for Sexual Health (revised in 2014) states that "everyone has the right to education and comprehensive sexuality education".