Sex ed for boys needs to be 'vulgar' - expert

Boys have no interest in anything to do with how to manage sexual relationships.Photo / Thinkstock

You need to be crude and rude to teach schoolboys about caring sexual behaviour, says an expert who has enlisted the help of vulgar comedians.

Boys don't discuss their relationships, and the sex education at school is not relevant to them, says Queensland University of Technology professor Alan McKee.

However, they do respond to profoundly vulgar and sexualised jokes.

Girls get useful information from magazines and chatting to friends, but different methods are needed to engage with boys, says Professor McKee, a speaker at a sexual health conference in Darwin.

"There's a lot we can learn from the entertainment industry about how to reach your target audience," he says.

McKee has conducted research at Brisbane schools that shows boys have no interest in anything to do with how to manage sexual relationships.

They don't even have an interest in how their sporting heroes behave off the field, he says.

"This is why we have tried to sneak it in secretly by using vulgar comedy."

McKee recruited vulgar stand-up comedians and gave them a range of topics.

"It is not just about using a condom, but how to have a healthy sexual relationship, how to break up with someone. Things we know young men are concerned about."

But it was too much for the jokers, whom he is not naming at this stage.

"At first they became too serious. They started preaching," McKee says.

But the comedians got their gross groove and delivered in the end.

Now the professor hopes to partner with a radio station and distribute the short comedy segments via the internet.

"If it appears to be purely vulgar comedy, there is a possibility it will be very attractive," he says.

"Hopefully it is something young men will talk about and distribute to each other."

- AAP