The following is commentary on an article by Kate Uren syndicated and that appeared in The Courier Mail.
Chanel Contos, the activist who successfully lobbied for “consent” lessons in schools, is now pushing for children as young as 11 to be taught about pornography through what she calls “porn literacy.” Yes, you read that right, pornography in classrooms.
Claiming the average age of first exposure to porn is 11, Contos argues this should trigger a national rollout of explicit content discussions in schools. She wants this added to the national curriculum by 2026, believing kids are better off being “educated” about porn rather than being left to figure it out themselves.
These perspectives deny the fact that many parents are able, capable, and willing to meaningfully engage their children with the negative effects of pornography.
This extremist new campaign fits neatly into the increasingly inappropriate content being pushed onto children under the guise of education. It’s yet another example of ideological social engineering being driven into our schools.
Contos, who’s now studying public policy at Oxford, says boys are more hostile now to her message, blaming online influencers and what she dubs the “manosphere.” (it’s always those pesky boys on the left, isn’t it? She believes “gender-restrictive attitudes” are creeping back into the conversation. One wonders if she considers healthy boundaries, parental authority, or traditional family values to be “restrictive” too.
Another academic, Professor Alan McKee, echoed the activist chorus, arguing that sex ed is too “biological” and needs more focus on relationships and intimacy. Apparently, talking about intimacy and pornography with children is the next frontier.
One Nation’s view: enough is enough. Senator Pauline Hanson has recently raised her concerns about what’s being discussed in classrooms, with harrowing stories from her own family of young children wanting to discuss genitals after these types of conversations were raised in classrooms.
Let’s be clear. Pornography in the curriculum is precisely why more and more parents are fed up with what’s happening in our schools.
At this point it is also worth inserting a little history lesson. Many states, including Queensland, banned pornography right up until the 1990s. Police would raid newsagents and other outlets to confiscate inappropriate material. The left took to the streets and marched in support of letting everyone have access to pornography, and in Queensland at least, the left-wing Labor government of Wayne Goss opened the Sunshine State to pornography.
You read that right. The left used to march in support of access to pornography. It was family-based conservatives that opposed it and warned what might happen if society became open season for access to degenerate material.
Sex education, if it’s going to exist at all, belongs in high school, in a framework that supports safe, loving, respectful relationships, not explicit content about pornography or warped ideological trends. Teaching primary-aged kids about porn doesn’t protect them; it confuses them, sexualises them prematurely, and undermines the role of parents. Frankly, our opinion is that the proposal has the potential for abuse, like grooming.
One Nation warns this path is no different from society opening access to pornography in the 1980’s and 1990s. Isn’t it ironic that that same side of politics, the radical and extremist left, is now trying to put a lid on all the problems that result from pornography. We warned them then, and we warn them again.
One Nation will always stand for the protection of our children, the rights of parents to raise their children according to their values, and a return to common sense in our classrooms.