Start sex education at age five says top medical expert

One of Britain's top medical experts says children as young as five should be given sex education lessons when they start school.

Dr. Charles Saunders of the British Medical Association (BMA) says if sex education is left until youngsters are 12 it is too late because some are already experimenting.

He also says secondary schools should hand out condoms and other forms of contraception to older children.

Dr. Saunders says the groundwork needs to be laid down early in order to help and empower them to make decisions and turn things down.

Dr. Saunders comments come amid fears that many teenagers are at risk because the safe sex message is being delivered too late.

Dr. Saunders is the chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants' committee in Scotland; Scotland's sexual health record is one of the poorest in the western world, with more than 9,000 teenage pregnancies recorded in 2005 and cases of sexually transmitted diseases rising by six per cent in April to June this year.

At present most children in schools in Britain do not receive sex education until they are aged 10 or 11 at the earliest.

While the Scottish Executive has said it is up to individual schools to decide when to begin sex education, the Catholic Church has described the proposal as "pointless" as sex education at five years old would be way over their heads and as pointless as giving them a talk on alcohol.