Dr. Siobh?n O'Higgins:

In the case of every school that has contacted us to become involved with our resources, after the training with the teachers, we offer a webinar for parents. More recently, since Covid, we have been able to go to schools and hold an evening for parents. We have found there is pushback from some parents, who want to keep their children ignorant but ignorance is not the same as innocence. It is about reducing their children's vulnerability. Knowledge is power, as is information, and it is about getting across that message to parents that this is about reducing their children's vulnerability and not about putting them at risk.

We know from international research that talking about these issues informs young people and that they will be less likely to become involved in intimacy at an earlier age if they have that information. In the US, when there was abstinence-only education, many young people were becoming involved intimately from the age of 15, but without safety or understanding because they could not tell anybody or ask anybody about it. It is about moving away from talking about risk to talking about how a relationship that is positive might be formed and how to explore and express yourself as a young person, that is, moving from being a child to being an emotionally and physically healthy adult.