A new survey of 4,014 citizens from the US, the UK, and Canada has revealed that there are varying attitudes and opinions on what topics should be addressed when discussing sexual education. 

All three countries believe that parents or guardians should be primarily responsible for teaching sex education to children and teens at some level. 

However, you start to see differences of opinion when you start talking about when to begin sex education. 24% of Canadians wish to start sex ed courses at age 9 or earlier, compared with 13% of Americans and 17% of British who feel this way. Nearly 33% of residents in each country believe the best time to start sex education is between 12 and 13 years old.

As for sex education in schools, 10% of Americans, 3% of Canadians & 2% of British are against courses in schools. All three countries believe Sex Education is necessary, but what should it teach is not agreed upon. 

90% of people in the three countries believe topics like pregnancy, birth control, venereal diseases, sexual abuse, and bullying should be discussed. Check out the chart below for additional sex education topics.

We see more differences when respondents look back on their sexual education and what influenced them. 

All three countries agreed that conversations with friends were useful & that the media, & sex education courses influenced them.

Overall, Americans believe the main source for sex education should come from the family. The British appear to be dissatisfied with sex education courses with only 43% of them calling it “useful”. Canadians,on the other hand, are the most open to discussing pleasure and homosexuality, and want to see sex education courses start at an earlier age.

ONE Condoms believes quality sex education is integral to creating a healthy society. In fact,ONE donates a portion of each sale to HIV/AIDS education and prevention efforts in the US and Internationally.

What do you think is the best way to teach sex education? Is it through friends, sex ed courses, the media, online or your family?