Experts from various fields of endeavors have decried the huge gap in sexual communication between parents and their wards as they grow up.

They said the gap is linked with the high rateof unwanted pregnancy, and abortion among Nigerian youths because most parents forbid communicating anything that has to do with sex in their homes to their growing children.

This and others topped the discussion during a one-day programme organized to mark this
year’s International Youth Day.

The programme to mark this year’s International Youth Day with the theme: ‘Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages ’was organized last Friday in Benin by the Edo

State Technical Working Group for Adolescent Health and Development (STWGAYHD) in collaboration with Advocacy Core Group (ACG), Edo and other stakeholders, including the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria.

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One of the discussants, Abiola Igaga, from the Conference of Non-Governmental Organization, said most parents do not have anything to tell their children about reproductive health, rather they gave the scary information of getting pregnant if a man meets them.

“Most mothers do not have what they can tell their children on reproductive health. My moth- er then will tell me that ‘if a man gets close to you, you will be pregnant,’ but this is not true.

So, I did not have any information on reproductive health until I got to school,” she said.

Another discussant, Juliet Egwede from Edo State Technical Group on Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health said parents and the society at large respond negatively to any discussion on sex by the young ones rather
than enlightening them and telling them the right ways to go about it.

“The response from parents, when a child starts communication on reproductive health, has been negative. Even in the society, weare living in, when you talk about sex, the response is always negative. So, this makes young people shy away from talking about it, particularly in public,” she said.