Education Scotland draft proposed teaching pornography addiction to eight to 11-year-olds

A draft paper from Education Scotland recommended lessons on pornography addiction for pupils aged eight to 11, prompting criticism from Scottish Conservatives and an education campaigner. The issue adds to scrutiny of the quango’s curriculum reform work, which is already facing questions over documents containing references to sources a whistleblower believes do not exist.

The reference appeared in a June draft of the Health and Wellbeing framework, which proposed teaching pupils in Primary 5 to 7 about addiction, including pornography. Education Scotland later removed it from an updated version but did not explain why it had been included or dropped, or whether AI was involved. The Scottish Government said errors in evidence papers had been rectified, while Education Scotland described the document as a superseded working draft.