Fact Check-Quote ‘children must have sexual partners’ falsely …

A quote attributed to the United Nations about children having “sexual partners” is fabricated, and does not appear in guidance on childrens’ sexuality education cited in the false claims.

“’Children must have sexual partners’ says United Nations,” reads a poster shared on Twitter that has been viewed more than 779,900 times (here).

The poster was also shared on Facebook (here) and (here).

The posters include the text StopWorldControl.com at the bottom and the claim appears to stem from that website (here). The “About us” page of the website (here) includes references to misinformation narratives about global development plans, such as The Great Reset (here), Agenda 2030 (here) and Agenda 21 (here), that Reuters has debunked in the past.

The article bearing the false headline cites the International Technical Guidelines on Sexuality Education (ITGSE) published in 2018 by UN agencies including the United Nations Population Fund (here) and other documents on sex education for children and adolescents published by organizations affiliated with the UN (here) and (bit.ly/44Kz8tn).

The documents do outline guidelines on sexuality education for children and young people, but a full search of those documents shows that none of them contains the statement, “Children must have sexual partners.”

The website also cites a passage in the ITGSE document, taking parts of a longer sentence out of context to claim that the document advocates “equipping children to have sexual relationships.” The full passage appears on page 16 (here) under the heading “Understanding comprehensive sexuality education” and reads: “Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to: realize their health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and, understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.”

Will Zeck, chief of UNFPA’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Branch, told Reuters via email that the circulating quote is false.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) under ITGSE is a program designed to teach and learn the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality, Zeck said in an email. It has been “falsely accused of sexualizing children, introducing sexually inappropriate material to young children too early, grooming them for sexual abuse, and promoting homosexuality. The truth is that the health benefits of CSE are well documented, while no credible evidence exists to support these claims.”

Reuters has previously debunked false claims circulating online about the UN advocating decriminalization of sex with children (here).

VERDICT

False. The UN published guidelines on sexuality education for children, but did not say “children must have sexual partners.”

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work (here).