The problem pages in teen magazines are said to be a positive source of advice Teenage magazines are taking the place of parents in teaching children the facts of life, an official report warns. Education watchdog Ofsted (Office for Standard in Education) said today problem pages in publications such as Cosmo Girl and Sugar - and 'lads' mags' including Nuts and Zoo - are a "very positive source of advice and reassurance for many young people". Ofsted said magazines were filling the gap for teenagers because too many parents - especially mothers of adolescent girls - were failing to give children the advice they need about sex and relationships. The watchdog's education director Miriam Rosen said: "No matter how difficult it may be, parents and teachers have to discuss sensitive issues with their children and pupils to help them make the right choices as they grow up." The controversial endorsement of teenage magazines came in a new Ofsted report looking at the way schools teach children about sex, drugs and alcohol. So-called "personal, social and health education" was still patchy in many primary and secondary schools, Ofsted said in a review of inspection reports from 2001 to 2006. Polls of pupils by the Schools Health Education Unit for Ofsted showed: "Parents were generally less likely than previously to be seen as the main source of advice; the decline has been particularly marked for Year 8 (12-yearold) girls." Parents were too shy to tackle embarrassing issues such as sex head-on. Ofsted continued: "As well as failing to provide the information themselves, some parents express concern about the suitability of information young people receive from other sources. "Nevertheless, the 'problem pages' in magazines remain a very positive source of advice and reassurance for many young people, but difficulties may arise if the messages clash with parental and cultural norms." Ofsted urged schools to provide embarrassed parents with material to help explain the facts of life to their children. But it also warned that in most primary school sex education lessons pupils knowledge and understanding of factual aspects were no better than adequate". (Reuters)

一份官方報告發出警告，青少年雜志正在取代父母，充當起對孩子進行性教育的角色。 據英國教育監管部門獨立教育標準辦公室Ofsted介紹，如今，《都市女孩》和《甜心》等出版物，以及Nuts 和 Zoo等男性雜志中的答疑欄目成了“許多年輕人尋求建議和安慰的一個十分積極的渠道”。 據Ofsted介紹，由于太多父母--尤其是處于青春期女孩的母親--在性和男女關系問題上沒能給予孩子必要的建議，所以這些雜志就為他們補上了這一課。 Ofsted的教育部主管米里亞姆·羅森說，“不管多么難以啟齒，家長和老師都應該與孩子和學生討論這些敏感問題，以幫助他們在成長過程中做出正確的選擇。” Ofsted最新發布的一份報告對學校在性、毒品和酒精等問題上的教育方式進行了探討，報告中對青少年雜志中有關欄目表示了一定程度的認可。 Ofsted在2001年至2006年的監管回顧報告中稱，很多小學和中學在所謂的“個人、社會和健康教育”方面做得都不夠。 Ofsted下屬的學校健康教育小組對小學生進行的一項調查顯示，“家長不再像以前那樣被視為建議的主要提供者；這種改變在八年級（12歲）的女孩中表現得尤為明顯。” 家長羞于跟孩子正面討論諸如性這樣的尷尬問題。 此外，“家長們一方面自己不向孩子提供這方面的信息，同時有些家長又擔心孩子從其他渠道獲取的信息是否合適。” “不過，雜志中的答疑版塊仍是給年輕人提供建議、解答疑惑的一個十分健康的渠道。但如果雜志上的信息與家長的標準和文化準則不一致時，可能就會出現問題。” Ofsted要求學校為那些“尷尬”的父母提供一些資料來幫助他們向孩子解釋性知識。同時Ofsted發出警告，在大多數小學的性教育課程中，學生們對于性知識的掌握和理解無法讓人滿意。 （英語點津姍姍編輯）