London - Scouts are to be taught how to use condoms in a sex education campaign organised by their leaders.
Nearly 35,000 Scouts aged 14 and over will be offered lessons in which they will get the chance to “feel what a condom is like”.
The courses will go alongside tuition in sexually transmitted diseases, sexual language and relationships in a campaign to “promote good sexual health within Scouting”.
The founder of the Scouts movement, Robert Baden-Powell, would have raised an eyebrow at the initiative.
He advised that the proper response to sexual longings was washing with cold water.
He also encouraged those with “primitive sexual urges” to shift their energies into hiking and “out-of-door manly activities”.
But Chief Scout, Bear Grylls, said: “This programme is about getting the right information to young people to help them make smart decisions about their relationships.
“We want to help young people become confident, clued-up and aware. My message is: Make your own mind up and don’t let others do it for you. We only get one body, so respect it.” - Daily Mail