Anyone else feel that parents shouldn't be allowed to opt their kids out of sex ed?

I've been thinking about all the talk lately around better sex ed, free contraception, etc "to make sure abortions are as rare as possible" in the aftermath of the referendum. One thing that's struck me is the fact that parents are still allowed to opt their children out of school sex ed.

This is purely anecdotal, but the one teenage pregnancy in my own year in school was fathered by the one guy whose parents I vividly remember not allowing him to attend the school's RSE, either in primary or secondary school. I can't help but wonder if the lack of neutral guidance (without moralising around the subject) may have contributed to this - it always stayed with me that out of the whole year, there was only one person whose parents denied him the chance to attend sex ed in school, and there was only one person who got someone pregnant. Go figure. The girl was in a different year, so I don't know her circumstances around sex ed.

I honestly feel that this is something which should be compulsory in this day and age. I have to assume that most - probably not all, but most - parents who refuse sex ed for their kids are either (a) hopelessly naive in assuming "my kid is too young to be thinking about sex", or (b) conservative types who don't want their kids being taught that sex isn't wrong and something they shouldn't be thinking about until they get married or whatever. Both of these ideologies are well known to actually increase risky sex and teenage pregnancy (certain parts of the United States come irresistibly to mind here, abstinence only and all that sh!te), and in my view are also extremely harmful to psychological development (telling a kid that their natural desires are somehow "wrong" or "sinful" when they're about to experience puberty is psychologically abusive as far as I'm concerned) - I've been with women whose mothers hammered the whole slut shaming "no man will touch you if he finds out your 'number'" sh!te into them and who were traumatised as a result. Horrible stuff to have a partner confide in you to be honest.

With all that being said, does anyone else feel that we should no longer allow parents to dictate if, when, and most importantly how their children are taught about sex? We don't allow parents to choose to not educate their kids in reading or arithmetic - an ultra-conservative Muslim family who believe that their daughter shouldn't have a standard education, for example, will be getting a swift visit from social services if their kid isn't being properly schooled - so why do we still allow it when it comes to something as important, central to the human experience, and where ignorance is extremely dangerous, as sex education? I'd argue that if we can make a legal and political case for it being neglectful not to have one's children educated in how to read, write and do simple mathematics, all of which are important for life, it's an absolute no brainier that we can make a similar case for a fully rounded sex education, and that teaching a young boy that he'll go blind if he touches his weiner, or a young girl that having too many partners in her lifetime renders her somehow "tainted", is emotionally and psychologically abusive and neglectful.

Should this be something we work on changing? Given the overwhelming yes vote at the weekend, along with the gay marriage result a few years ago, it strikes me that the national mood is firmly against sexual conservatism at the moment. Might be the optimum time to have a national debate over denying children a neutral, facts-based sex education, and whether this is something we should continue to allow as an exception to the general requirement that children receive an education in other vital areas of life knowledge and skills.

Thoughts?