Teaching young people how to protect themselves from online sexual violence should be included in school curricula, young rights activists told a news conference yesterday in Taipei.
Data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare last year showed that close to 33 percent of victims of cases involving non-consensual sexual images were aged between 13 and 17, the highest among all age groups, members of the National Education Action Alliance said, calling for urgent changes to how sex education is taught in schools.
Statistics compiled by the ministry’s Department of Protective Services also showed that, as of June this year, 52.6 percent of sexual assault victims were aged between 12 and 18, they said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Activists invited a female high-school student to the news conference, who accused male students in her school of using sexual violence against her, and taking and storing private sexual images of her without her consent.
She said she had tried to seek assistance from school, which warned her that there would be a three-way interrogation during the investigation of the incident.
Schools can only handle sexual violence cases happening on campus, the alliance’s youth affairs director Lee Yu-han (李雨函) said.
When these occur online, outside the campus or between acquaintances, minors have no direct way to seek help, she said.
“The sex education that students need is not simply showing where sexual organs are located. It should show them what they do to protect themselves from sexual harassment. The hours and materials of sex education, as well as the support system for sexual harassment victims, should also be updated to meet the needs of this generation,” Lee said.
There should be a comprehensive review of the school curriculum, where hours spent on education of sexual violence prevention, body boundaries and emotional development should be top priorities, the alliance said.
Course materials on sex education should be updated by including digital boundaries and consent culture, it said.
Fu Jen Catholic University public health associate professor Cheng Chi-chia (鄭其嘉) said that elementary and junior-high school students only have one health education class per week.
In senior-high schools, students receive merely two required credits in “Health and Nursing” over three years — equivalent to just 36 class periods, she said.
“With such limited instructional time, coupled with the fact that many schools lack teachers specialized in health education, it is impossible to provide students with adequate and comprehensive sex education,” Cheng said.
The alliance also urged the Executive Yuan to tackle the issue by having the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Education jointly establish a child-friendly, single-entry help-seeking platform along with interministerial standard operating procedures.
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