"Don't touch our children!" These were the cries of 1,500 people who protested in the center of Brussels on Sunday, September 17, against a two-hour-a-year school-based "education in relationships, affective and sexual life" (EVRAS), promoted by the French-speaking Minister of Education Caroline Désir, aimed primarily at pre-teens and teenagers. The draft decree of the proposal was adopted on September 7.
In Belgium, where love life education has been compulsory since July 2012, the program aims to promote "respect for others" and "equality" as well as "prevent violence in love relationships;" "deconstruct sexist and homophobic stereotypes," "prevent unplanned pregnancies" and, finally, "reduce sexually transmitted infections." As Belgian daily Le Soir explains, this is a "public health tool for schools."
However, the awareness-raising program is the subject of many misunderstandings, misinformation, and infamous conspiracy theories, particularly among Catholic and Muslim communities. They see it as a project for the sexualization of children, or even institutionalized pedophilia. As early as September 7, La Libre daily reported the circulation of a false e-mail distorting the aim of EVRAS' activities. Eight schools have since been set on fire or vandalized.
Around September 8, the masked testimony of a man introducing himself as an outraged father took TikTok by storm. The man recounted a story allegedly told to him by his son – "Teachers told him to touch [a] little girl's privates." The claims are devoid of any context, making them impossible to verify. "We have pedophiles in our schools," he said. According to his account, the school principal justified what happened by citing "the law" and "new bills." He concluded his video by explaining that he had sold his house and second car to move to Spain, because "this only happens in France."
As many internet users have pointed out, the testimonial contains numerous inconsistencies and approximations, starting with the fact that the awareness-raising program concerns Belgium and not France, and that there is no question of performing any sexual gesture whatsoever: It's all about dialogue.
Another viral video, among many others, made on September 9 by "Nadou G the lioness" with an openly conspiracy-minded profile, worried about "free access to pedophilia in schools," and explained that "they want to turn our kids trans." In reality, the EVRAS guide only plans to combat transphobia by raising awareness on gender identity. "We're obviously not going to encourage hyper-sexualization among young people, nor are we going to induce sexual orientation or gender identity," said the French-speaking education minister. His words are based on a 300-page informative guide and only certain points are brought up, depending on the class profile and students' questions.
At the same time, several petitions have sprung up. The first, posted online on September 11 and signed by 13,000 people, calls for French Education Minister Gabriel Attal to "react to his EVRAS law and withdraw it." It's an incongruous project, to say the least. However, as Libération reminds us, it's not a law, and EVRAS doesn't concern France: Attal therefore has little to do with the issue.
A second petition appeared around September 13 on the Les Lignes Bougent website. "The S in EVRAS means that our children will be informed of the possibilities of individual and group SEX [and] MASTURBATION from the age of 5 in schools, and from the age of 9 informed and subjected to pornography. BY OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS this is very serious, we absolutely must act against it," it read. French rapper Rohff shared the petition with his 800,000 X (formerly Twitter) followers, inviting them to sign it to prevent "your children, your 5-year-old nieces and nephews from being taught to masturbate and being taught about penetration and pornography at age 9." In just a few days, 25,000 people, mainly mothers, signed the petition.
As the Belgian website RTL reminded us, the rapper is misinformed: The two-hour school activity is not aimed at 5 and 9-year-olds but rather at 12 and 15-year-olds. The EVRAS guide only plans to tackle the issue of masturbation with 12-14-year-olds, not 5-year-olds. "I've read that we're going to 'teach children to masturbate,' it's completely unacceptable to scare parents on this subject," said Désir, the Belgian minister.
As for pornography, it is addressed with 9 to 11-year-olds because, according to a Luxembourg study, 19.4% of 10-11-year-olds have already looked at pornographic content on the internet at least once. The aim is not so much to introduce them to it, but to assess its "positive and negative influence" and "develop [a] critical sense." What's more, while the program will eventually include situations adapted to broader age groups, "the activities are based on the pupils' own questions," specifies the official website. The aim is not to impose themes, but to respond to spontaneous questions from children and teenagers.
The topic is being exploited by a network of activists. Some are opposed to EVRAS for political or religious reasons: conservatives who don't want certain progressive themes, such as sexual orientation or gender identity, to be addressed in schools. But others go beyond the simple framework of societal disagreement to spread an openly conspiratorial vision of the sex education guide, accusing it of serving pedophilic interests, a conspiracy core theme that has been revitalized in recent years by the QAnon network and the release of the film Sound of Freedom.
An inquiry by national Belgian radio and television RTBF has uncovered a network of 25 people and identities "active in disinformation around EVRAS," divided into five groups: followers of pedocriminal theories, child defenders, Covid skeptics, conspiracy-leaning media and fundamentalist religious groups. One of those, Civitas – which has been banned in France – present at the anti-EVRAS protest in Brussels on September 17, were fantasizing about "the application of a global plan promoted by the WHO to install a 'new sexual world order.'"
While it's rare for it to gain this much traction, false information about sex education courses is not uncommon. In 2018, an alarmist publication assured that a national education circular in France planned to address sexual issues with 5-year-olds. In reality, it was a Swiss report on child sexuality.
Similarly, the August 3, 2018, law which introduced the presumption of non-consent for sexual relations with minors under the age of 15, was accused – against all evidence – of "legalizing pedophilia."
A school circular extending sex education lessons to include the notion of consent had also been described by far-right websites as "sextracurricular" time serving the interests of pedophiles.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.