I was 10 when I saw my first film, and had already snuck a look in the back of my mother's Home Doctor book and was shocked and intrigued by the pictures I found there.HKUE amec

Other children had been told by friends, while the more cavalier characters in class might have encountered pornography in magazines or in films. As sex education films often glossed over penetration into a sanitised narrative, smirks would accompany these films just as much as grimaces.針灸

The laughter didn't stop when dainty cartoons of the human anatomy showed what happened inside us, rather than between us. But occasionally, some films would show very progressive material. A few memorable films showed the experience of childbirth, prompting gasps and stunned silences and, in some cases, fainting.

Rarely did films show sexual acts. Dr Martin Cole's 1971 film Growing Up, is one of the few that broke with convention, showing masturbation and intercourse acted out by real people. By attempting to dispel the shame and guilt that clouded sexual behaviour, he received some positive feedback from teachers and pupils.

Novelty value

But the film also triggered national controversy. It was banned by Birmingham City Council and criticised heavily by the Sun newspaper.

Whatever their content, educational videos still had novelty value for children in the 1970s and 1980s. For starters, visual material was rare in schools, and it is easy to forget that televisions at home had only three channels until 1982.
Shot from 'Ave you got a male assistant Miss? (Picture courtesy BFI)
In the 1970s the protagonists became a lot hairier

Sexual images and debate were also less common. There were tighter controls on TV and magazines, and the availability of sexual resources on the internet, both in terms of health and pornography, was still many years away. But these films also had novelty value for teachers.

While obviously saving them the embarrassment of explaining the mechanics of sex to minors, they also brought to their classrooms an engaging new tool. After a class watched a sex education film, and thought about the interesting images and ideas they had encountered, they could then pose questions to their teacher about what they had seen, and healthy debate could be encouraged.

In many cases, this actually happened.

Many would argue that sex education films are needed more than ever today, especially while teenage pregnancies continue to rise, and sex continues to be so prominent in popular culture. 旅遊團

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