Home
Archived
10 tips for dealing with pornography in schools

Back

10 tips for dealing with pornography in schools

Alice Hoyle, teacher and freelance sex and relationships education adviser, offers a concise guide to dealing with pupils and pornography.

17th October 2012, 12:57pm

1 Know what you are dealing with

Research around the impact of pornography on young people .You need to have a good idea of the sorts of materials young people might be accessing. However you also need to recognise that evidence is mixed on the extent of the impact of”pornification “andor ”sexualisation ”of young people. Young people are not passive consumers - but they do need support to develop their understanding of the things they might be exposed to, or are seeking out. Bear in mind that in the absence of quality provision young people may seek out pornography for their sex and relationships education.

2 Work within your school’s policies

You must follow your school’s child protection policies and your school should already have strategies in place to deal with incidents such as sexting (sexual content being shared), sexual bullying and inappropriate sexual behaviour on school premises.

If you develop SRE lessons around these issuesyou are contractually bound to work within your school SRE policy, so you must ensure your senior management and governors are supportive of your planned curriculum.

3Work within the legislation and guidance

Currently theDfE SRE guidance (2000)is still in place with all the legislation that underpins that. The findings from the PSHE review have not yet been released but this government is unlikely to make SRE statutory. They are also unlikely to specify guidance for supporting teachers in tackling controversial issues such as pornography. However the government has stated it is committed to tackling teenage relationship abuse .

4 Ensure your school SRE provision is robust

Do not cover the more controversial sensitive stuff until you get the basics absolutely right. You can assess your current provision using audit tools from the membership area of the PSHE Association .

5Get skilled up

Make sure your SRE teachers are properly trained and confident to explore this topic with young people. TheFPA ,Centre for HIVandSexual Health and Bishtraining amongst others all offer training courses on this area.

6Use available teaching resourcesas a starting point for your planned curriculum

FPA resource Fantasy Versus Reality and BishTraining Planet Porn .Both are incredibly helpful to use as a resource bank and as a starting point for your planned curriculum but it is important to develop your local program to meet your student’s needs.And don’t forget to check out the free resources available on TES .

7Work with parents

Get them on board with your SRE curriculum. Have an SRE stand at parents’ evenings to share materials you will be covering and signpost sources of parental support such as Speakeasy and Family Lives .

8Work with students

Discuss with young people where they get their ideas about sex and relationships from and explore what they would want to see and expect in their own relationships. Ask them:

What do they want and need to know?
What are they worried about?
What do they think the effects of porn on young people might be?
How do they think practitioners could support them with some of the issues?

Want to keep reading for free?

Register with Tes and you can read five free articles every month, plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters.

Register

Register with Tes and you can read five free articles every month, plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters.

More information

Keep reading for just £4.90 per month

/per month for 12 months

You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £4.90 per month for three months and get:

Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
Exclusive subscriber-only stories
Award-winning email newsletters

You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £4.90 per month for three months and get:

Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
Exclusive subscriber-only stories
Award-winning email newsletters

More information

Recent

Most read

Most shared

The coastal schools mission must get to the heart of the issues

Analysis

18 March 2026

How the White Paper reforms could help ECTs

Analysis

18 March 2026

Teachers worried about impact of screen time on reading

News

18 March 2026

Uta Frith: why I no longer think autism is a spectrum

Teaching & Learning

4 March 2026

Ofsted recruits unpaid inspectors as part of pilot scheme

News

13 March 2026

Why schools should stop pushing reading for pleasure

Teaching & Learning

11 March 2026

‘Insidious return of prejudice’ fuelling racism in schools, leaders warn

News

14 March 2026

The missing middle: why we agreed to chair the KS3 RISE Alliance

Analysis

13 March 2026

Will inclusion bases just become exclusion rooms?

Analysis

16 March 2026