Durban - Childline says it is worried by the increasing number of complaints about pupils who have been caught engaging in sexual acts and being filmed, especially at schools.
The organisation this week cautioned parents against the unsupervised access children often had to social media as it had a huge impact on the increasing number of them having sex and the amount of videos circulated on social media.
Childline’s operations manager, Adeshni Naicker, said such cases could be attributed to children having unsupervised access to social media through cellphones, the internet and television.
“Children are exposed to much more sex than children their age were many years ago. Back then children had limited access to the internet and had no access to social media.
“Some children take what they see on social media and want to experiment. For younger children, sexual education should be done carefully at home, at their parents’ discretion,” said Naicker.
Recently videos showing Cape Town pupils having sex at two different schools “spread like wildfire” on social media.
In one video, a man filmed a teenaged boy and girl in school uniform having sex on a balcony and then scolded them for doing so in public.
In another video two pupils were filmed having oral sex inside a high school library.
Earlier this month, a video on social media showed a boy being interrogated by staff and patrons at a North West restaurant about what he was doing
in the men’s bathroom with a young girl.
Elijah Mhlanga from the Department of Basic Education said engaging in sexual acts at school was a violation of the code of conduct and pupils could be charged with misconduct and suspended or expelled.
The Department of Basic Education recently revealed that it planned to extend sex education to Grade 4 pupils.
According to the Department, its sex education for Grade 4 pupils was guided by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s international technical guidelines on sexual education. Vee Gani, the spokesperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Parents’ Association, said children were naturally curious and would want to experiment with sexual activities.
“If we want to address this issue, we need to caution our children in an appropriate way, because the reality is that our children are engaging in sex at a young age, and most do so without any knowledge of it and the consequences, which include diseases and unwanted pregnancies,” said Gani.
Allen Thompson, president of the National Teachers’ Union, said teachers carried the burden of sex education as parents avoided the subject at home.
“We have been calling for the department to make Life Orientation a respected subject and for it to be recognised for full points at university. The children are not going to take the subject seriously when the department and universities do not give it the recognition it deserves,” he said.
Life Orientation was compulsory up to Grade 12 but it was not recognised and included in the points system required for university entrance.
Thirona Moodley, spokesperson for the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, said children caught engaging in sexual acts should be advised by professionals or by their parents, and not in a classroom with 50 pupils.