Name: Italy: Students protest sex education ban | Focus on Europe
Uploaded: 2026-03-15T16:54:22.000Z
Duration: 5 min 36 s
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Who should it be for and what should it look like?

In Italy, those questions are sparking heated debate.

But at this school, they're tackling the issue head on.

You're being intimate with your boyfriend and he keeps pushing for sex.

When you refuse, he says you don't love him enough.

He's done everything for you, but you won't return his.

We're in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, an island off the southern tip of Italy.

At this vocational school, students openly discuss sex, emotions and self determination, topics that are still taboo in many classrooms across the country.

He can't force me to do something if I say no or if I'm tired.

You can't pressure me just because you think I'm supposed to satisfy you somehow.

Physical or emotional violence, it's all violence and can never be justified.

Emilia Assini and Ja Di Bella run these workshops at the school's request.

Even in Palermo, programs like this are the exception rather than the rule.

We try to address sexuality in a broad way, going beyond biology to include psychological, emotional and social perspectives.

A big part of our work focuses on what it means to grow up being socialized as a woman or a man, and

But programs like these are under attack.

Sex education is not mandatory and there are no plans to change that.

A new law from the country's right wing government would ban such programs entirely for children under 14.

For older students, written parental consent would be required.

In Parliament, Italy's education minister defended the proposed law.

It's been claimed that this bill bans sex education in schools.

Others alleged that we are obstructing education about empathy.

For the first time, we are setting a clear, objective.

Teaching respect for women and more broadly, interpersonal and emotional empathy.

While lawmakers debate the issue in Rome, young people are fighting for the right to sex education.

He's from Palermo and is part of a student initiative called Piacere di Conocerci, or Nice to Meet Us.

The group is founded by students in eight local schools.

They gathered 6,000 signatures and presented them to the mayor.

Their demand sex education in all city schools for students of all ages.

We asked for sex and relationship education to become part of the regular curriculum.

Instead, the city proposed seminars just four hours a year.

Two plus two for middle schools and two plus two plus two for high schools.

Not even a full school day per year for an entire school.

And it wasn't even clear if that meant one class or all of them.

City officials say they'll continue discussions with the Student Initiative to see whether a better solution can be found.

Back at the school, the students are discussing their own experiences.

Raise your hand if someone's ever made comments about your body in the street or catcalled you.

If you ask men the same question, the answer is very different.

School is the only place I get sex education.

I've never talked to my parents about it.

They wouldn't mind, but I haven't found the right moment.

Many parents can't imagine talking about these things with their children.

And then situations happen that could have been avoided if they'd been discussed at home.

So it's important to talk about sex education in school, even during regular lessons.

The new law wouldn't make it any easier to talk about sexuality in schools.

Even if sex education were banned tomorrow morning, if I held sessions in the afternoon, students would still come.

Just because you stop talking about something doesn't mean it stops existing.

So for now, at this vocational school in Palermo, the workshops will continue.

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Italy: Students protest sex education ban | Focus on Europe

present

physical

debate

empathy