Mr. Nick Hewlett

FROM ST DUNSTAN’S COLLEGE, LEWISHAM

Mr. Nick Hewlett speaks about their conference on Tuesday 20th June titled: ‘Let’s Talk about… Porn, Sex and Educating for the Difference’ in an effort to raise awareness as to the current growing teen pornography crisis.

Given the findings of the recent Children’s Commissioner’s Report in January, do you believe that there is a growing cause for concern at the moment with regards to the use of pornography among young people?

I absolutely do and I have for a very long time. The Children’s Commissioner’s Report really just compounds and echoes my previously existing thoughts, which is that young people are living in a cyber space with accessibility to unregulated pornography that I believe is unprecedented. Certainly, it’s a totally different space to the one I occupied as a young person, and the impact of that on this generation of young people coming through is hugely significant and worrying.

I believe that we have an absolute imperative as educators to tackle that proactively, to facilitate a dialogue among young people so that they can make corrective choices online and build a values base from which they can make active decisions as to what they want to engage in and what they don’t want to engage in. But to set out the extent of the problem in the way that the Children’s Commissioner’s Report has done showcases to us that actually there is an enormous issue that must be tackled.

It cannot be right that in this country, the majority of young girls expect pornographic imagery to contain violence from men towards women, and it cannot be right that that violence is routinely associated with the strangulation of women, and it cannot be right that when we know that nearly 50% of young people are accessing pornography before the age of thirteen, that that level of violence and unregulated violence associated with it is what’s going into our young people’s minds.

Can you tell us a little bit about what the St Dunstan’s conference will cover?

The real premise of this conference: it’s a first, so what I want to try and do is use it as an opportunity to educate educators as to the extent of the problem, because I feel that for too long, we’ve had our heads buried from this subject. We’ve been far too British about it and felt as though we can’t talk openly about sex and porn, when we know that’s the lived experience of the vast majority of young people under our care.

So, the first thing I want to do is just to get it out in the open, acknowledge the extent of the problem, understand the extent of the problem and, quite frankly, be mature, adult and professional about it in saying: “Yes, this is a very real issue, this is what it could mean or what it does mean, actually, for the development of these young people in impeding their development?” and then to move the conversation on to: “How do we tackle it? What can we do in schools?” because in that lies risk, we know in the current climate that there is risk, and there’s risk not least because there is a lack of consistency and clarity in the guidance from the Department for Education in what we should and shouldn’t be teaching.

There’s increasingly a willingness to engage and a recognition that something needs to be done in some of these areas, but without real clarity, you risk inconsistency in the way that this is approached. You risk inconsistency in how we’re pulling in third-party providers and how it’s being taught, in how we manage stakeholders in the teaching of this particular subject, all of whom have different views as to what should and shouldn’t be taught.

The second part of the conference is really about saying: “Well, within the realms of what we can do, how do we share best practice in this area? How do we, together, try and collectively lobby for some sort of greater clarity from the government as to how we might approach teaching this?” But, first and foremost, we need to recognise that we must teach it because we have a duty to protect young people and help them make the right choices online in this particular space.

What can parents do at home to try to address these issues?

There’s obviously a spectrum of what parents feel comfortable talking to their children about and I totally understand that. For me, that is why the consistency needs to come from schools – the third party, if you like, for the families. The only way you can ensure consistency in educating around these values is by relying on schools.

But of course, parents have a role to play, they have a role to play in all elements of education, in supporting it, in affirming some of the things that are being taught in the classroom, and some will feel more comfortable than others. I personally feel as though parents should be creating an environment at home where these kinds of honest and frank conversations can take place. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s always easy, nor does it mean to say that parents should feel guilty if they are not able to have that conversation, or indeed if they don’t feel comfortable having that conversation, because different families interact differently for all sorts of different reasons. Young people feel more comfortable or less comfortable talking to parents about different things. But of course, I would encourage families to have that conversation. www.stdunstans.org.uk

I think what is really important is that parents understand what is being said in schools, and that schools are transparent about what it is that they’re talking about in these classrooms: which third-party agents, if they’re bringing those in; what is the resourcing around this and how can parents understand that better; not be taken by surprise when their children come home and talk to them about it; and how can they engage supportively in that? This is about transparency from schools to parents in these more challenging issues, so that everybody can work together in trying to tackle it.

We would like to thank Mr. Nick Hewlett, Head at St Dunstan’s College, for giving up his time to speak to us.