Some 8,000 concerned parents have signed a petition calling for a sex education programme for primary school pupils to be taken off television.

The Dokter Corrie show is a four-minute item broadcast as part of school television news and aimed at children in their last two years of primary school.

The petition signatories, mainly parents from the Netherlands’ orthodox Christian communities, criticise the show for emphasing ‘liberal sexual morality’, the Volkskrant said.

They also feel sex education is a job for the parents, the paper quoted petition initiator Yvonne Koopman as saying. Some 80% of the country’s primary schools use school television programming in lessons.

White coat

Earlier this week, the minority Christian party ChristenUnie asked questions in parliament about the show, which features a blonde actress in a white coat talking about sex half seriously, half as a giggling teenager. In one show, she demonstrates French kissing using a skeleton.

.’We are not against sex education,’ MP Joël Voordewind said. ‘But it is the way in which it is done. You need to take your time, not squash it into four minutes in the middle of a serious news broadcast.’.

Sex education became part of the core primary school curriculum in 2012. The content has been devised by the Rutgers WPF sexuality institute.

Condom

The short item begins with Dokter Corrie using Skype to talk to a celebrity about their early experiences with love and sex. In one episode, choreographer Shaker told viewers to use a condom when they have sex, prompting Corrie to tell viewers ‘you probably are not that far yet’.

In another episode, television presenter Lucille Werner said boys used to look at her as if she was weird because she had an odd walk. Doktor Corrie went on to say that ‘everyone is normal’, including boys who like boys and girls who like girls, and people who are religious.

Koopman says this is akin to indoctrination. ‘It is as if children and their parents cannot have their own opinions any more,’ she told the paper.

In a reaction, junior education minister Sander Dekker said the show is both ‘informative and amusing’ and there is no need for the government to intervene. ‘The television has an on/off switch and people can decide whether or not to use it,’ he said.

Humour

Public broadcaster NTR, which makes the show, says the humorous approach was deliberately chosen to create a relaxed atmosphere. However, the show will now be placed online a day before it is broadcast so teachers can prepare, a spokesman said.

The Netherlands has been praised internationally for its approach to sex education, which emphasises fun and responsibility rather than diseases and pregnancy. The Netherlands also has one of the lowest teen birth rates in the world.

In this episode, Ajax captain Siem de Jong talks about his first kiss.