Chapter 10: Children's rights to sex and sexuality education.

The article focuses on the outlines of the official policy of Great Britain from the late 1980s to the early 2000s; illustrating how successive governments have accepted and reinforced dominant ideologies about children, sex and sexuality. Recurring themes are identifiable in statutory and non-statutory policy, including: responsibility for and content of sex education, moral values, controversial issues such as homosexuality, HIV/AIDS and advice to under 16s. Shifts in emphasis are also evident, reflecting political agendas and contradictory philosophies underpinning education and health policies. While the Thatcher era reaffirmed Victorian values--marriage, family, parenthood--conflict between education and health policies led to confused and confusing messages. Since 1997, New Labour initiatives have attempted to resolve these contradictions while failing to address the implementation of children's rights. In conclusion the article proposes adoption of a rights-based agenda for sex education policy and practice, using implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a starting point.