Parents’ associations yesterday criticized several junior-high and high school sex education textbooks for including “inappropriate and misleading” information about sex and gender issues.
The National Alliance of Presidents of Parents’ Associations and several local parents’ associations have rated junior-high and high school sex education textbooks for the spring semester based on whether the content meets students’ age-specific needs.
The health and nursing textbook for high-school students published by Yuida received the lowest score, mainly for introducing “diversified conceptions of gender” and a section on sex videos, association standing director Yang Chun-tsu (楊郡慈) said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
The section features a picture of US celebrity Paris Hilton on the cover of Elle magazine, with a caption that reads: “While a US artist has become extremely famous because of her leaked sex video, a Hong Kong artist’s leaked selfies caused great controversy among the Chinese-speaking community.”
The section also asks students to express their views on whether it is a good idea to film themselves having sex and explains the legal consequences of distributing sex videos.
Two other health and nursing textbooks for high-school students, published by Yuida and Youth, were criticized for including a link to the Web site of National Central University’s (NCU) Center for the Study of Sexualities.
The Web site contains information about necrophilia, zoophilia, sadomasochism and group sex, said Wang Li-sheng (王立昇), who heads the association’s think tank.
“Those things are not normal and many of us do not even know what they are. Why should our kids be given that information? It could be misleading,” he said.
The Web site has several databases containing research on a wide range of subjects related to sexuality, as well as sex education material designed for teenagers.
Parents also called for removing a sentence in Han Lin Publishing’s health and physical education textbook for eighth-grade students that says sexual needs should be satisfied on condition of mutual respect, mutual consent and without hurting others.
“The sentence is inappropriate because the legal age for sexual intercourse is 16,” Wang said.
NCU honorary professor and convener of the Center for the Study of Sexualities Josephine Ho (何春蕤), who founded the Web site, said the parents’ associations appeared to have merely scanned through the Web site without truly understanding the content and its context.
“What kind of examples are parents setting for their kids when they are uninterested in knowledge and choose to ignore social realities?” she asked, adding that high-school students are almost adults, and maintaining a closed and obscurantist approach to any knowledge about sex could be a huge problem.
“Are parents not worried that kids might try to force or hurt others to satisfy their own sexual needs if they never learned the importance of mutual consent and respect in sex when they were in school?” she asked.
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716