ABSTRACT
Sexuality permeates, influences, and is inseparable from our gendered, religious, class, ethnic and other identities. From an emphasis on practices, attention shifted during the late eighteenth century to sexuality as intertwined with identity. Such ideas influenced wider socio-political efforts towards sexual reform, the development of feminism, and a relative liberal change process in western society. The establishment of specialist journals, such as Sex Education that has opened an important on-going space to further academic discussion on the topic, and World Health Organization guidance that is beginning to influence educational practice. Children and (not-so-) young people's knowledge of sex and sexuality is predominantly self-taught, through efforts to relate to others and through exploring texts, media and the internet. This quest for knowledge, driven by biological instinct, pleasure and culture, is, however, troubled, being beset with reticence, censorship and/or repression, and hypocrisy.
