With cybercrime, particularly sex-related offenses, setting off alarm bells in the community, experts are in agreement that educating children about sex is the first line of defense. Oasis Hu reports from Hong Kong.

Editor’s note: Cybersexual assaults have taken their toll in Hong Kong as cases mount. The third part of our series explores ways to reform the systemically inadequate and obsolete sex education at local schools to counter the problem.

‘Would you like to play badminton together?” This appears to be just a run-of-the-mill request, but it may have sexual connotations.

Hong Kong’s Education Bureau courted controversy recently when it issued a guideline in the Citizenship, Economics and Society Curriculum, specifically targeting Secondary 3 students and focusing on adolescents’ intimate relationships.

The guideline creates a scenario in which two teenagers are studying at home in the heat of the summer and the girl removes her jacket, apparently stirring emotions in the boy. It then suggests that, faced with such a situation, the teenagers should “leave the scene immediately” and “go out to play badminton” instead.

The textbook also says: “In reality, society still considers premarital sex a deviant act and young people should not have sexual behaviors with others at will.” It also requires students to sign a commitment letter, writing down methods for controlling sexual impulses.

The authorities swiftly ignited discussions on the internet, with criticisms of the guideline taking center stage.

Legislator Gary Zhang Xinyu is of the view that “if the textbook only states that engaging in sexual relations with minors under the age of 16 carries criminal liability”, it may not stir controversy. However, it advocates the staunch rejection of premarital sex, which may stigmatize such behavior, he says.

Professor Diana Kwok Kan, a sex therapist specializing in gender studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, suggests that young people should be educated about how to face and understand their sexual desires instead of solely emphasizing control.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin brushed aside the criticisms, explaining that the textbook isn’t “conservative” but is rather aimed at “safeguarding secondary school students aged 12 to 14”. The bureau does not plan to remove or alter the textbook.

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Residents swarmed the internet, transforming “play badminton together” into emojis and memes, and portraying them instead as a veiled sexual invitation.

Elia Yeung Man-wai, executive manager of the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation, says how adolescents manage their sexual desires is just one facet of a comprehensive sex education. The row has exposed the fundamental deficiencies in Hong Kong’s sex education framework as a whole.

The public discussions show it’s high time to review and reform local sex education to address the needs of young people, says Grace Lee Ming-ying, education manager of the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong.

Unsafe spaces

According to RainLily — the city’s first sexual violence crisis center — it had received 14,000 requests for help from 2000 to 2018, with 3,611 cases recorded in detail. Among the cases, rape constituted 64.2 percent, with indecent assault accounting for 30 percent, and sexual harassment 5.8 percent. These types of sexual offenses have been on an upward trend in the past two decades.

Incidents of cybersexual violence have also risen amid the widespread use of the internet. According to Hong Kong police, there was a 15.4 percent increase in sexual assault cases linked to children’s online activities in 2022 and last year. Research also showed that online sexual harassment among students has exceeded real-life incidents by more than fourfold.

Jessica Li Chi-mei, an associate professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, blames the internet’s unrestricted availability that has eliminated time and space boundaries, enabling sexual violence to occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has also rendered counterfeiting and payments easier, facilitating fraudulent and sexual transactions. She believes that sex education is the first line of defense in getting students out of harm’s way in the digital era.

Yeung stresses that in the information age, many young people are characterized by precocious maturation and exposed to inaccurate sexual content at an early stage, making sex education even more crucial in today’s context.

However, many children in Hong Kong lack basic sex knowledge either online or offline, says Chan Ho-yau, a sex education instructor at the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation, who has given lectures on sex at hundreds of schools. She would often ask students, “Can your parents see your private parts?” Many students would reply: “Yes!”

“But, no one, not even parents, should observe or touch the private parts of children who are capable of attending to their personal needs, if there is no emergency,” says Chan. “This understanding is of the most fundamental knowledge regarding sex education.”

Fragmented approach

Yeung notes that Hong Kong schools lack dedicated guidelines for sex education. In 1997, the Education Bureau did introduce a set of guidelines on sex education in schools, offering instructions in implementing sex education. The guidelines touched on sex education from kindergarten through secondary school, proposing that schools offer dedicated hours on the subject. The suggestions covered a wide range of crucial topics, including physiological aspects like the body’s reproductive system, puberty and contraception, as well as relationship themes like love and marriage.

“Although they had been introduced earlier, these guidelines are comprehensive,” reckons Li Lai-ling, project leader of Soil-Sexuality Wellness Service — an early intervention initiative undertaken by Caritas Hong Kong that engages with young people facing challenges in sex.

Although not obligatory, numerous schools have customized their sex education strategies based on such guidelines.

However, online sex education has never been included to keep pace with the times. Furthermore, the guidelines were removed from the Education Bureau’s website in 2018. China Daily Hong Kong asked the Education Bureau why those guidelines were deleted and whether it intends to reintroduce them. The department replied without giving any reasons for removing them.

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Yeung points out that sex education in Hong Kong is not mandated to be a standalone subject in the curriculum, adding that, at present, sex education in schools is integrated into value-based subjects like moral, civic, and ethical education, or intertwined with general subjects, such as language and mathematics.

The Education Bureau told CDHK that sex education shouldn’t be a separate subject as it’s an integral component of values education, and integrated education would create a synergy effect.

However, experts are worried that an integrated approach cannot ensure efficient sex education. Yeung says it’s not a standalone subject so that it cannot be used to measure a school’s performance. It’s also not an academic subject that schools typically prioritize, nor is it an extracurricular activity that schools would attach importance to.

Donna Wong Chui-ling, director of Against Child Abuse, says many teachers are working against the clock teaching standard subjects, making it difficult to allocate time for sex education. A local study revealed in 2022 that 82.3 percent of schools lack time to incorporate sex education into their teaching schedules. Most schools also don’t have a coordination mechanism for implementing sex education, with 80.8 percent of them not having a designated coordinator for sex education.

According to Lee of the Family Planning Association, local schools’ current method of enforcing sex education primarily involves inviting nongovernmental organizations specializing in sex education to give talks in schools. When educators here have greater awareness of the subject, there may also be more extensive educational activities.

Conversely, if principals and teachers lack an understanding of sex education, they may overlook it entirely.

Therefore, there are vast discrepancies in such an approach, content, delivery mode, as well as the effectiveness of implementing sex education in schools.

Lee notes that, at times, schools themselves are obstacles to sex education. For instance, those with a religious background might refrain from discussing topics like masturbation and contraception openly, causing them to forgo collaboration with nongovernmental agencies about sex education.

Anna Ng Hoi-nga, who chairs the Hong Kong Association of Sexuality Educators, Researchers and Therapists, reveals she was often only invited to conduct sex education sessions in schools after incidents of sexual violence had occurred on campuses. She describes sex education in Hong Kong schools as “reactive” instead of “proactive”, “remedial” rather than “forward-looking”, and “fragmented” instead of “cohesive and systematic”.

Call for change

Experts would like the Education Bureau to make sex education a distinct subject, and launch new guidelines as soon as possible.

Yeung suggests that while creating a separate subject for sex education may pose challenges, the bureau should, at the very least, require schools to make their staff specifically responsible for coordinating sex education, and setting minimum time allocations for it.

Institutionalizing the importance and timing of sex education is a prerequisite for discussions about how to deliver sex education, says Ng, suggesting that sex education in schools should start early in childhood from kindergarten.

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In Yeung’s view, sex education goes beyond basic physiological knowledge to include an understanding of intimate relationships, power dynamics between genders, and the importance of respecting people of different genders. People without sufficient education on relationships are more likely to become perpetrators.

Lingnan University conducted research between 2019 and 2021, interviewing 50 men who had been involved in creepshot. The study found that most of the offenders, who had never received relationship education, were even unaware that clandestine photo-taking could inflict harm on women.

Doris Chong Tsz-wai, executive director of the RainLily Sexual Violence Crisis Centre, says sex education must be dynamic, and its content should be continuously updated in line with the evolving landscape. For instance, sex education in the digital era should include guidelines on how to be responsible internet users.

To be specific, after having received private videos and photos, students should not make inappropriate comments, and avoid sharing or saving it. They also should not blame victims, she says.

Yeung argues that as it’s easier for “verbal offenses” to happen on the internet, the definition of sexual violence, sexual consent, and sexual autonomy should be taught in the online context. Without the knowledge of proper definitions, many students may become either abusers or victims without even realizing it.

Jessica Li notes that real-life examples of online sexual offenses can serve as valuable teaching tools, helping children to be more careful when interacting with strangers and identifying tactics like online grooming. Students should be acquainted with relevant laws, understand the repercussions of their actions, or utilize legal recourse to safeguard themselves online.

Drop the taboos

To improve sex education, society must first dismantle the taboo when discussing sex, suggests Ng. Sex is a fundamental element of human beings, significantly influencing people’s well-being. Regrettably, in Hong Kong, it’s often relegated to discussions characterized by subcultural or vulgar language, thereby becoming marginalized.

By fostering an environment where discussions about sex can occur comfortably, there will be greater room for sex education.

Chan became a sex education teacher at the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation following an incident in which she was surreptitiously photographed on the subway. With the help of other passengers, the perpetrator was apprehended. However, after the man’s arrest, Chan was left with a lingering sense of unease, realizing she had never had any knowledge about how to handle sexual harassment in her school education.

Chan asked herself: “How many others have faced situations similar to mine? Have they found a way to navigate such circumstances? If not, what dangers might they encounter?”

Since then, she has strived to be a sex education instructor. For one thing, she hopes younger generations will never experience the suffering that she had to endure after the incident.

Contact the writer at oasishu@chinadailyhk.com