This volume makes a considerable contribution to the history of sex education. This book treats sex education in the broadest sense to incorporate all aspects of the formal and informal shaping of sexual knowledge and awareness of the young. The volume, therefore, not only addresses officially-sanctioned and regulated sex education delivered within the school system and regulated by the State, but also sex education taking place within the private sphere of the family and obtained through the media such as sex education books and films.

The history of sex education enables us to gain valuable insights into the cultural constructions of what different societies have defined as 'normal' sexuality and sexual health. Yet, the history of sex education has only recently attracted the full attention of historians of modern sexuality.