Start sex education early, says consultant

CHILDREN should be getting sex education lessons when they start school, a leading medical figure has said.

It comes amid fears that many teenagers are being put at risk because the safe sex message is being left too late.

Dr Charles Saunders, chairman of the British Medical Association's Scottish consultants' committee, also says secondary schools should hand out condoms and other forms of contraception to older children.

Dr Saunders said: "If you leave it until they are 12 it is too late because some are already experimenting. You need to start laying the groundwork to help them and empower them to make decisions and turn things down."

Scotland's sexual health record is one of the poorest in the western world, with teenage pregnancies and cases of sexually transmitted diseases rising.