Sexualised moaning is now a thing in primary schools. It’s mostly boys who do it, in the playground or in class. It’s a joke to them; they don’t know where it comes from, or what it means, although they realise it carries a tinge of taboo, or, in primary school speak, that it’s suss. The girls don’t know either, but it makes them uncomfortable.
These days, no responsible employer would tolerate a staff member who moaned as a female colleague walked past, showed her pornography or lifted her skirt.
But the protections for adults in workplaces don’t seem to apply in schools. In my reporting on education, porn and harmful sexual behaviour among teenagers, I am regularly shocked by the sexual harassment to which teens are subjected in class or in the playground, and the laissez-faire response from adults around them.
Two years ago, Chanel Contos helped lift the lid on a culture of male sexual entitlement at high-fee boys’ schools. Her activism prompted a re-evaluation of the way consent is taught in schools.
Children are exposed to explicit and sometimes violent pornography ever younger (the average age is now about 11), leading to an early and rapid education, often from other kids. Porn is the reason there’s moaning at primary school.
The federal government refused the e-Safety Commissioner’s request to pilot technology that would block children’s access to explicit content, which means the onus remains on parents and schools to fight its effects.
Politicians and principals can’t do much about parents, but they can support schools to ensure young people are held to the same standards of respect in the classroom as adults are in the office.
Source: Shocking sexual harassment endured by Sydney schoolgirls