These sex-education booklets were published in the mid-1950s by the Health Department. The 1953 Lower Hutt teenage sex scandal had led to the 1954 Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents (the Mazengarb inquiry), and then to law changes which made it illegal to provide contraception to, or discuss it with, under-16-year-olds. It was believed that giving young people information about sex would encourage them to try it at an earlier age.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Archives New Zealand – Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Reference:
AAFB 632 W4914 box 223 record 34/9/35 5 (left); AAFB 632 W4914 box 223 record 34/9/35 4 (right)
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