Maggie Dent's new study exposes shocking statistic in primary school children

1000 teachers were surveyed and shared the truth about Year 2s and R18+ content that’s happening every day.

Parenting expert Maggie Dent and advocacy group Collective Shout released a report on Monday revealing shocking statistics about student-led sexual harassment against teachers in Australian schools.

The national survey of Australian school teachers revealed "Widespread, entrenched and normalised harmful sexual behaviours," involving children as young as Year 2.

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"Moaned, groaned and grunted at"

1000 teachers were surveyed, and reported that while in the classroom, they were "Sexually moaned, groaned, and grunted at, asked for nudes and intimidated. Some of the harmful sexual behaviours were exhibited by children from as young as Kindergarten to Year 3."

Teachers reported that they did not feel safe at school, and that students told them the same thing. 

Most alarmingly, they reported "seeing more victims of Image Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA)... and instances of children as young as Year 2 accessing and sharing pornographic content through personal devices or social media."

A quote from the report says: "It is definitely happening at a younger age more and more! Year 5 and 6 students sending nudes after being continually asked to do so - photos then being passed around to other boys."

Image: iStock

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"Rapid rise of harmful sexual behaviours"

The survey revealed that "Teachers expressed despair about the rapid rise of harmful sexual behaviours which they attributed to early exposure to pornography, the malign influence of social media influencers, and broader societal sexist attitudes."

A direct consequence was teachers leaving the profession and/or taking extended leave. One reported:

"[As a teacher I have] never felt so drained, mentally and emotionally, in the past two years dealing with the increase of this behaviour with no school supports in place."

Another quote from the survey reads: "I had a student tell his girlfriend about his rape fantasies involving me. He also threatened to rape his girlfriend if she told anyone."

"Ignored, dismissed, excused"

Many teachers reported that students intend their language to be "jokes or banter, failing to recognise that making sexual jokes is a form of sexual harassment."

They also called out inadequate responses from schools and parents.

A statement in the survey read: "Too many times I've seen male students get away with a warning for really inappropriate sexual behaviour towards female students because ‘they're too young, just boys being boys…

"Parents need to acknowledge their child's behaviour as it is by the law - sexual harassment. But they often ignore or excuse."

Originally published as Maggie Dent's new study exposes shocking statistic in primary school children