Child Sexual Education & Behaviour
Health Studies, Anatomy, Genital Touching, Psychology, Gender Roles

Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? .. But in truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them. (de Montaigne, On teaching Philosophy of Education)

Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education. (Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, On Philosophy of Education)

Hello. Thanks for visiting our evolutionary philosophy of human sexuality pages. We are currently researching good quality sites relating to our biological and cultural sexual evolution - as a way of collecting and presenting the most important / latest knowledge and research.

Below you will find summaries of articles & websites on Child Sexual Education, i.e. latest research on the sexual development of babies to children, health, anatomy, psychology, memory and the infant brain, genital touching, nudity within families, positive self esteem, relationships, gender roles etc.

Further ideas to explore / collect research:

* Sexuality is not exclusive to adults. We are born sexual / sensual creatures and our sexuality changes as we grow and develop e.g. A child may find pleasure in touching their genitals, adults from intercourse.
* Impact of culture and religion.
* Age appropriate behaviour.
* Denying children are sexual as a means of protecting them from sexual abuse. That sexual behaviour amongst minors under the age of consent is considered abusive by mainstream society.
* How to bring up children with positive, healthy attitudes towards their bodies.
* Truth as protection. e.g. Perhaps it is better to educate your children to the truth of pedophilia (that it exists) so that they can be careful, know to tell you.

Child education is not a very popular search on the internet, compared with more pragmatic concerns such as child support 20,000/day, child care 15,000/day and illegal interests such as child porn 18,000/day.
The top related searches are;
child education (3,478), young child education (165), child birth education information (88), child care education (73), special need child education (69), child birth education (44), education child day care (42), business child educating education (31), child education software (30), child health education (30)
(For comparison also see: Internet Search Results - Top 200 Internet Search Terms)

Child pornography and pedophilia are significant problems faced by society. By acknowledging children are sexual, we do not promote or accept pedophilia in any way. We respect the laws of society and understand the age of consent law exist to protect children and minimise harm. Children will though, naturally explore their bodies and behave in ways that gives them pleasure. We hope you find the following articles & websites can help educate parents to bring up their children in an informed, healthy, happy and appropriate way.

Karene Jade Howie

Child Physiology: How the Human Body Works

Educational and fun website for adults and health care professionals to use with children. Simple, interactive diagrams makes it easy to teach how the human body (of infants, toddlers, children) works and develops.

Read More: Child Physiology: How the Human Body Works

Sexual Behaviour / Development of Infants & Children: Masturbation, Genital Play

An interesting academic essay on child sexuality. Discussion of ideas such as breastfeeding, physical contact between mother and child, intimacy & emotional maturity, child genital exploration & masturbation, sexual fantasy, interaction with peers, inhibiting sexual experiences of infants & children and how mainstream society views child sexuality.

From the essay: 'During the first year of life, there is progression in an infant's discovery of its body and its exploration of parts of the body, including the genitals. The fingering or simple pleasurable handling of the genitals is referred to as genital play. Infants in their first year are generally not capable of the direct, volitional, rhythmic movement that characterizes masturbation, while genital play requires little coordination and begins as early as the second half of the first year of life. The greater autoerotic satisfaction climaxing in orgasm depends largely on rhythmic, repetitive movement. Rhythmic manipulation of the genitals involving use of the hands does not generally begin until the child is approximately two and one-half or three years old, probably because small muscle control is not well enough developed earlier, yet Kinsey reported on one seven-month-old infant and five infants under age one who were observed masturbating.
Large muscle control involving muscles used in rocking or in rubbing against persons or objects is well enough coordinated by six months of age to make such masturbatory activity possible.'

'That infants and small children have the physiological capacity for sexual response, that they are curious about their bodies and the bodies of others, that they are attracted to intimate interaction with others have all been established. With a permissive environment, modeling, encouragement, and stimulation, there appears to be no cessation of sensual and sexual activity from first discovery and on through life. The question for any society is: Is there such a thing as age-appropriate sexual behavior for children? There is no agreement on the answer to that question in American society. There is one universal norm of child sexuality that is accepted by all responsible adults; namely, that children should not be sexually abused. ... That universal norm does not take one very far in understanding age-appropriate sexual behavior, however. In fact, rational discussion of age-appropriate sexual behavior and research on human sexual development have scarcely begun.'

Sexual Behaviour / Development of Infants & Children: Masturbation, Genital Play
http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/articles/1994_children.html - By Vern Bullough and Bonnie Bullough (eds), Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1994.

A Safe Internet: Education & Protection of Children

From the website: 'Though a valuable information resource, the Internet caused explosive growth for the pornography industry. It is essentially the fastest, cheapest and most anonymous pornography outlet available.
One dangerous aspect of the Internet is its use by pedophiles. Child molesters and predators can pose as youngsters and communicate with other children, expose them to pornography and arrange to meet them in person. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that one in five children aged 10-17 who regularly use the Internet have received a sexual solicitation while online. One in four were unwillingly exposed to images of naked people or people having sex.

There are ways to combat these problems and protect our families. The National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families believes it is important for people to be educated on Internet safety issues and ways to deal with the problems. Education and parental involvement is vital, but use of technology to monitor, block or filter content is extremely helpful.'

A Safe Internet: Education & Protection of Children, Filter Software, News Articles & Tips for Parents
http://www.internetsafe.org/

Internet Child Pornography Prevention & Education

Educators with Internet access in their rooms and buildings must make it a priority to supervise children on the Internet. Some schools have employed the use of filtering programs. Having a teacher nearby and actively interested in what the students are pursuing on the Internet can effectively deter inappropriate access. Teachers have an important responsibility to report Internet child pornography, as it is included in the area of child abuse.

Read More: Education & Child Pornography Prevention Strategies

Quotes on Child Sexuality & Sexual Development

Popular opinion has quite definite ideas about the nature and characteristics of the sexual instinct. It is generally understood to be absent in childhood, to set in at the time of puberty in connection with the process of coming into maturity and to be revealed in the manifestation of an irresistible attraction exercised by one sex upon the other, while its aim is presumed to be sexual union, or at all events action leading in that direction. We have every reason to believe, however, that these views give a very false picture of the true situation. If we look into them more closely we shall find that they contain a number of errors, inaccuracies and hasty conclusions. (Sigmund Freud, Three Essays of the Theory of Sexuality)

Anatomically the penis is well suited for this role; projecting free from the body, it seems like a natural little plaything, a kind of puppet. (Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949)

To the boys the urinary function seems like a game, with the charm of all games that offer liberty of action; the penis can be manipulated, it gives opportunity for action, which is one of the deep interests of the child. (Simone de Beauvoir, 1949)

To many little girls it seems that the boy, having the right to touch his penis, can make use of it as a plaything, whereas their organs are taboo. (Simone de Beauvoir, 1949)

The male anatomy constitutes a powerful formation that often impresses itself upon the little girl’s attention. (Simone de Beauvoir, 1949)

The boy, having an organ that can be seen and grasped, can at least partially identify himself with it. But the little girl cannot incarnate herself in any part of herself. To compensate for this and to serve as her alter ego, she is given a foreign object, a doll. It is a statuette with a human face - or, that lacking, an ear of corn, even a piece of wood - which will most satisfyingly serve the girl as substitute for that double, the natural plaything: the penis. (Simone de Beauvoir, 1949)

The ability to love and to accept love, to form relationships and to enter into mature, adult sexual bonds depends to a larger extent on the experiences one has as a young child. Early experiences can destroy the development process and can cause adults to be psychologically immature. The impact of parents and a warm, stable loving home environment is important to psychological well-being. If this is absent, distortions are likely to result which may not be resolvable without help later in life. (Peter Vardy, 1997)

Babies and children are sexual creatures and it is only in a sexually repressed culture such as ours that credence would be given to any alternative suggestion. In the vast majority of cultures in the world, children witness adult sexuality as part of their everyday life experience. Things are different in the West where children are required to be 'innocent' and seen as empty slates. .. If it could be proven that by allowing children to gain knowledge of sexuality naturally as they grow up that we would be harming or damaging them in any way, we would of course, be against it - but there is no proof. On the contrary, work done by Margaret Mead and others suggests in societies where children are not repressed sexually, they show no preoccupation with sex and grow up sexually balanced. In such cultures, perversions and deviations are rare. (Dr Philip Cauthery, Dr Andrew and Penny Stanway, The Complete Book of Love and Sex, 1989)

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. (Aristotle)

The educated differs from the uneducated, as much as the living and the dead. (Aristotle)

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Education.htm

This Page Title: 'Child Sexual Education & Behaviour: Research, Health, Genital Play, Gender Roles, Psychology, Nudity'.
The main sexuality pages on the evolution of our diverse sexual behaviors have good content and are well worth browsing (see links at top of page). And the list of related sexuality terms that people actually search is informative (to say the least!).
Want to be Involved? Join us in this research, which provides an excellent opportunity to present to the world the latest knowledge about the thing we all find most interesting - sex! The work will not just benefit humanity, it will profoundly enhance your own sexuality as you learn more about our complex and diverse sexual evolution.
We seek help in finding the latest scientific (evolutionary) research on our biological and cultural sexual evolution and distributing content (overviews / summaries) to relevant pages.
This site is well respected. We are listed as the Top Philosophy Website on the Internet with around 500,000 page views each week. So your contributions will be seen and read, and will be providing humanity with a great source of wisdom about a very important subject (that currently suffers due to cultural / religious myths).

If you would like to be involved (or have comments about this website) please write to us using the form lower on this page. Many thanks! Karene

Analyse any human emotion, no matter how far it may be removed from the sphere of sex, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to which life owes its perpetuation. ... The primitive stages can always be re-established; the primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable. ... Mans most disagreeable habits and idiosyncrasies, his deceit, his cowardice, his lack of reverence, are engendered by his incomplete adjustment to a complicated civilisation. It is the result of the conflict between our instincts and our culture. (Sigmund Freud)

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Related Search Terms & Number of Searches
Education, Children, Sexual, Health, Genitals, Nudity, Family, Masturbation, Sexuality, Private, Morality, Gender, Family