Young people are twice as likely as their parents’ generation to view comprehensive sex education as key to improving public health, according to national research carried out by mruk.  Asked to choose from a range of measures aimed at improving public health including obvious measures like increased cigarette tax, twice as many 18-24 year olds as 35-54 year olds believe that sex education at secondary school would deliver the most benefit.

With concerns frequently being aired that young people get too much of their sexual information from ill-informed websites and social networks, the research suggests that young people may be under-informed on such matters.  Rachel Cope, Head of mruk research, commented, “I think young people have more sense than we give them credit for.  Generationally it’s easy to think it’s the parents that worry about their children’s sexual behaviour.  However our research suggests it’s those more recently out of school who recognise they would have benefited from a more formal, rounded sex education”

The online poll was conducted among a representative sample of 1,058 adults from across the UK. It asked the public to imagine they were the Chancellor of the Exchequer and needed to help the NHS save money. They then chose the options they felt would best do this.