No, The WHO Won’t Teach Your Kids How To Masturbate

Yesterday on The Matt Walsh Show, the host of the program, Daily Wire writer Matt Walsh, dedicated some time to explaining how the World Health Organization “abuses children.” His criticism was also posted in the form of an article on The Daily Wire. This follows various attacks from right-wing circles about the WHO, as well as President Trump announcing that he plans to defund it.

Matt Walsh has been one of the main critics of the idea of sex education in schools in general, including of programs that promote Abstinence.

In November 2019, Walsh published the following on The Daily Wire:

A new sex-ed curriculum recently instituted in some classrooms in the United Kingdom is one of the most blatant examples of institutionalized child sex abuse that we’ve seen in the West. As the Daily Mail reports, the All About Me program being unveiled in over 240 schools across the country would give very young children “rules” for “touching yourself.”

First off, got to love the source. However, here are some of the parts Walsh takes issue with:

Under a section called Touching Myself, teachers are advised to tell children that “lots of people like to tickle or stroke themselves as it might feel nice.” They are also instructed to inform youngsters that this may include touching their “private parts” and, that while some people may say this behavior is “dirty,” it is in fact “very normal.”

So an objective fact? We’ll get into this controversy in a little bit, but for now, just know the idea you can somehow introduce to people that it’s okay to touch their genitals is utter nonsense.

I should note, in the interest of fairness, that there are programs Walsh mentions that I do believe cross a line. For example, Walsh mentions:

A recent “framework” for sex education in California features, among other things, graphic descriptions of sodomy and bondage.

If they are talking about bondage in graphic detail I will agree with Walsh that such a thing does cross a line. (Although, I have no issue with the concept of fetishes being mentioned in a psychological context if the goal is to educate people about sexuality.)

So what does the World Health Organization have to do with this? Well, Walsh seems to take issue with their sex education guidelines, or at least what he got from reading an article in The Daily Signal, which is owned by The Heritage Foundation.

The Daily Signal got their information from a group called Family Watch International. A group which describes their mission as:

To protect the family by working to preserve and promote traditional marriage, safeguard parental rights, defend human life, uphold religious liberty, and protect the health and innocence of children.

The article from The Daily Signal was also published in Washington Update, which is one by Tony Perkins, who was runs the Family Research Council. Perkins has also argued that being homosexual is the result of child abuse and that homosexuals are the same thing as ISIS — I’m not joking.

The specific person cited by The Daily Signal is Sharon Slater — who they also don’t link to the article by, odd. Slater supporters criminalizing homosexuality, or at least praised Nigeria for doing such, calling it “a strong role model for other governments in the region.” She is also friends with Martin Ssempa, an anti-gay activist in Uganda who supported the country’s now infamous “Kill The Gays” bill. It should surprise none of you that Slater is the founder of Family Watch International.

I should note I found all this out on accident. I was just looking for the article The Daily Signal (and I guess Washington Update) was quoting from. I have no idea if an online version of that article exists, if somebody knows of where I can find one please inform so I can see if that wasn’t even quoted properly.

However, my point in telling you all of this was to make one thing clear, I do not trust these people. I believe them to be dishonest agenda pushers who should have no say in what children are told about anything — much less something as important as human sexuality.

I should also note that the document linked by these people (read here) does not say what a large amount of them say it does. Matt Walsh joked that the WHO sure does really want your kids to know how to masturbate. However, the phrase masturbation is only used twice in the document. On one occasion, it says children from the ages of 9–12 should be taught:

[T]hat masturbation does not cause physical or emotional harm but should be done in private.

The other time is when it says teachers, again for children between the ages of 9–12, should:

Provide scientifically accurate information about HIV and AIDS and other STIs, pregnancy prevention, early and unintended pregnancy and the effectiveness and availability of different methods of protection:information in the curriculum should be informed by evidence; scientifically accurate and balanced; and neither exaggerating nor understating of the risks or effectiveness of condoms and other forms of contraception (traditional and modern). Many curricula fail to provide adequate information about modern contraception — particularly, but not limited to, emergency contraception and female condoms — or about PrEP and PEP. Abstinence-only programmes are still delivered in many countries despite robust evidence that this approach is ineffective. Abstinence-only programmes are also more likely to contain incomplete or inaccurate information regarding topics such as sexual intercourse, homosexuality, masturbation, abortion, gender roles and expectations, condoms and HIV

The phrase “masturbate” is also only used once, slightly above the first use of the term “masturbation.” Again, it says children between the ages of 9–12 should be taught:

[T]hat many boys and girls begin to masturbate during puberty or sometimes earlier.

Here’s how Walsh describes it on The Daily Wire:

Children from ages 0–4, we’re told, should be “given information” about the “discovery of own body and own genitals” and “enjoyment and pleasure when touching one’s own body, early childhood masturbation.”

In truth, no where in this document, the document linked by Walsh’s source and by Walsh mind you, does not once give sex education guidelines for children aged 0–4.

Another document linked by these people is about Sexual Education in Europe, also by the World Health Organization. This document also only uses the word “masturbation” in a scientific context, such as saying that, during puberty:

Masturbation may increase, more among boys than among girls.

You might be wondering why I’m talking about masturbation so much — that’s because that’s one of the main issues to these people. The Daily Signal says:

Slater also explains that “the WHO’s CSE standards for European children, which are even worse, start by teaching toddlers about masturbation. They also refer 9-year-olds to [the International Planned Parenthood Federation] to learn about their ‘sexual rights,’ which is further evidence of WHO’s deep partnership with IPPF.”

And earlier we saw Walsh get angry over toddlers being taught “how to masturbate,” which they are not being taught.

Okay, let’s talk about the nonsensical idea that children can somehow be “taught how to masturbate,” by school officials.

First off, the phrase “masturbation” in this context is highly misleading. No child can organism (at least, in the sense of ejaculation) before puberty. Why? I’m not sure, and I’m not looking up “why can’t a child ejaculate” to find out — sorry, even I have limits.

What these people usually mean is that school is going to teach them that it’s okay to play with their genitals in the privacy of their own room at their own home — oh no, the horror.

Any fan of Penn And Teller: Bullshit should be able to tell you the absurdity of this upfront. During ultrasounds, video has documented unborn babies (as Matt would call them) touching themselves and smiling. These are people so young as to have no concept of sexuality or the corruption brought to them by the WHO, yet they still enjoy touching their genitals.

The goal of this program is, therefore, not to teach them to do so — they already know how to. Instead, it is to explain to them why they enjoy doing it, and, for that matter, inform them that there’s nothing wrong with doing it privately.

I’m sorry, but the idea that children are going to become perverts because of the public school system teaching them about their bodies is nonsense. Yes, specific programs do cross the line, I will not deny that (I even gave one example of that in this article). However, the overall advantages of a basic sex education promoted by the World Health Organization is not going to do anything other than teach children about feelings they already have. Any proclamation to the contrary is nonsense.