A reflection on the role of sex education in the welfare of society.

In Italy, there’s no a formal sex education program or law to support it. Despite the first proposal in 1975 to introduce it in Italian schools, after almost 50 years our country is far behind the European context, where most countries provide it. However, there are experts who perform and can bring sex education into the schools through educational projects or interventions. This is a sign that a law is not equivalent to a concrete practice. To explain this lack of sex education some might emphasize the influence of the presence of the Vatican and the Catholic Church. However, over the years, even some ecclesiastical exponents have expressed their positions in favor of this teaching. The present work aims to present the Italian context after a century of debate on the topic and a reflection about the im portance of changing perspectives to embrace the society’s improvement. From the early 1900s, the debate seems to be centered mainly on two questions. Whether this topic is to be taught at school or is the sole responsibility of the family. Whether it’s right only to inform or to educate about sex and re lated topics. Furthermore, experts have been wondering for decades about what, how and since when to start sex education. After the publication of several international documents, which could have appeased the opposition, in Italy the debate remains strong. In particular on some topics included in sex education, for example talking to 0-4 year old children about their psychosexual development. Another example, very current, is the opposition to the so-called gender ideology which turns out to be the fear of inculcating the possibility of choosing one’s gender, despite the biological sex assigned at birth by chromosomal and anatomical characteristics. Therefore, there seems to be a lack and bad information, but also a continuous media use of wrong terminology, or fears and resistances based on opinions, values and beliefs. By completing the work of reflection, it is possible to come to a cri tique of the protection human rights in Italy. If the rights of the human being include sexual rights, in which the right to a good education about sex is present, at this point it could be stated that this right is not well protected in Italy. In addition, reading articles number 3, 4 and 5 of the 2030 Agenda concerning important aspects of sexuality education, this lack of protection can be highlighted even more. In a country such as Italy where, a few months from the beginning of 2023, adolescents play to sex roulette, in which getting pregnant means losing the game, and where rates of discrimination and violence are still high, we can’t close our eyes and not formalize sex education. Sex education has several positive effects, such as reducing the number of people suffering from STIs, unwanted pregnancies, gender-based violence or based on sexual orientation, school dropouts. These effects affect people’s lives and relationships with others. One should be able to count and mostly want to count on these positive effects, to improve and transform a society that is still too full of prejudices, fears, discrimination, stereotypes and violence.