The 1st Sexual Information Literacy Education Festival was held for those who teach sex education to children in Japan.
The event was attended by a diverse range of people from all over Japan, including nursery school personnel involved in comprehensive sexuality education, public health nurses who serve as human rights protection commissioners, midwives engaged in sexuality education activities, and picture book authors who are well-known in the field of sexuality education.
First, Ms. Mayuko Watanabe, president of the Association for Sexual Media Literacy Education, gave an explanation of what sexual information and literacy education is.
Next, midwives and mental health workers certified as instructors by the association gave lectures on sexual information literacy, SNS literacy, media literacy, and gender bias, all of which are necessary in the age of AI.
The following comments were received from the participants:
"Thank you very much for the lecture from four different perspectives. I gained various insights. I realized that in order to protect children, parents, caregivers, teachers, and other adults themselves must acquire a strong sense of sexual information literacy. " (Nursery school staff member)
"I was able to learn information that is changing with the times. It gave me an opportunity to rethink how I feel about my own gender bias. " (Public health nurse)
"The power of the media is great. I look forward to future sexual information literacy education." (Picture book author)
The "Sexual Information Literacy" education, which involves reading and understanding sexual information in the media, was first proposed in Japan in 2012 by the president Mayuko Watanabe, who is also the godmother of the name of the program.
Subsequently, the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education by UNESCO and other organizations has also emphasized the importance of introducing media literacy into sex education since its revision in 2018.
It was reported that Sweden, a leading country in sex education, will adopt new sex education guidelines in line with the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education in 2022, and will start "sexual information literacy education" to read and understand pornography in sex education at schools.
Japan cannot afford to fall behind because the country is known worldwide as the "Kingdom of Pornography" due to the large volume of adult videos and other materials it disseminates.
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Mayuko Watanabe's Official Website
