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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kirsty McCormack

Zara McDermott says consent needs to be taught in primary school as she talks sexual abuse

Zara McDermott has said she believes that adults need to start discussing consent with children when they are in primary school.

The former Love Island star appeared on Friday's Good Morning Britain to discuss her new BBC3 documentary and her own experience of sexual assault as a teenager.

Zara's one-off documentary, Uncovering Rape, sees her head into British schools to get to the root of sexual violence.

Speaking to GMB hosts Ben Shephard and Charlotte Hawkins, Zara revealed that one schoolboy admitted to her that he had watched pornography for the first time at the age of four.

"We need to start talking about consent in primary school I think," Zara told the hosts, as a shocked Ben replied: "That early? Because there will be people watching this morning going, 'I don't want my primary age children being exposed to these things'."

Zara McDermott has said she believes that adults need to start discussing consent with children when they are in primary school (ITV)

Zara replied: "But if they're being allowed on the internet, which a lot of students are in primary school, then who knows what they can be exposed to, so we have to start having these conversations young, unfortunately it's the world we live in now."

Speaking about teenagers having access to porn, Zara continued: "It's a really, really huge issue and there's no age verification on these sites.

GMB host Ben Shephard was shocked as Zara spoke about primary school age children being taught about sexual consent (ITV)

"I think that because we have swept this behaviour, in a lot of schools the behaviour hasn't been called out by peers, potentially the schools haven't really known hoe to deal with it it has become so engrained.

"Even when I was in school it was the norm, it was the done thing, but actually what are we telling our young people about what is right?" she added.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub.

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