Hong Kong leader John Lee defends controversial sex education advice for schoolchildren
- City leader Lee and education secretary Christine Choi dismiss claims the advice, which includes playing badminton to curb sexual urges, is ‘unrealistic’
Hong Kong’s leader and the education chief on Sunday defended the government’s sex education curriculum for schools, which asked pupils to avoid premarital sex and curb sexual urges by playing badminton, and insisted it was a valid way to “protect the juniors”.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and Christine Choi Yuk-lin, the secretary for education, weighed in on the controversy after teaching materials for the citizenship, economics and society curriculum for Form One to Three pupils was labelled as “out of touch” and “unrealistic”.
Some of the suggestions made by the Education Bureau included avoiding premarital sex if young couples could not cope with the consequences of pregnancy, setting limits on intimacy early in a relationship and developing “self-discipline, self-control and resistance to pornography”.
An example provided for the “avoid and divert” approach to sexual desire was “go out to play badminton together in a sports hall” when a boy had a physiological reaction when left alone with his girlfriend.
The remark sparked online mockery, with internet users suggesting an invitation to play badminton should be the Hong Kong version of “Netflix and chill”, a euphemism for sexual activity.
