A woman has firmly split opinion between parents after she appeared on TV to suggest that schools should teach children about masturbation.
Nadia Bokody, a sex expert - who recently hit headlines for 'breaking her vagina' - appeared on This Morning today where she said that the stigma and shame attached to masturbation, especially for girls, can cause problems further down the line. To combat this, she continued, schools should teach pupils as young as 11 about masturbation.
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She told hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langford that recent research found more than half of UK women aren't able to correctly label the parts of a vagina and that one in three women experience pain during sex and one way to combat this is through better education and a 'focus on pleasure'.
She said: "I think the benefits of masturbation are really around creating a lot more body autonomy - particularly for young girls.
"There's so much stigma and mystery surrounding women body parts. By acknowledging masturbation is essentially taking that bit of taboo away."
Viewers got in touch with the show to suggest that teaching this could encourage kids to have sex at a younger age.
But Nadia disagreed, adding: "It is beneficial to both sexes, but we know that socially we are more comfortable with boys labelling their genital area and it is socially acknowledged in a lot of humour messaging that we see.
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"But we don't have the same message as girls and we know that girls are going and having fairly unpleasant sexual encounters.
"If we can at least get girls to recognise what is supposed to feel like pleasure and what is supposed to feel like pain that's a start, but we can also have it there as an option for delaying partnered sex."
Meanwhile, viewers were split, with some branding her 'disgusting' and 'ridiculous' for her opinions.
One furious Twitter user wrote: "This is getting ludicrous. What age are you talking about teaching kids about masturbation... why does it need to be taught? It's a private thing. Why can't you leave the kids alone? Let them grow up learning on their own."
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Other accused her of 'sexualising children'.
However, others heaped praise on Nadia for her 'refreshing' approach to a taboo topic.
"To be honest, I agree," wrote one. "Schools should teach kids as young as 11 about masturbation, sex, relationships and all those kinds of things. Definitely important."
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A second posted: "I agree 100 percent. Masturbation should not be a taboo subject, especially with women."
Nadia told the hosts it should fall on schools to teach this because they're responsible for keeping kids 'safe' and 'preparing them for adulthood'.
She added: "We may feel unconformable talking about it but digging our heads in the sand isn't going to stop it from happening.
"We know young people are already having sex, we just want them to do it safely."
Featured Image Credit: ITV / This MorningTopics: UK News, TV and Film, Sex and Relationships, UK Entertainment, UK