Polish ruling party presents bill criminalising ‘sexualisation of children’

The Polish ruling camp will put forward a bill against the “sexualisation” of children and adolescents, aimed at giving parents greater freedom in bringing up their children, ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jarosław Kaczyński said on Thursday.

The draft, in the form of a citizens’ initiative, was supported by Kaczyński and Elżbieta Witek, speaker of the Sejm, the lower chamber of Polish parliament. Witek, who took patronage over the initiative, asked everyone to get familiarised with the proposed draft bill and sign it.

“The idea is to prevent children from being exposed to practices that are certainly harmful to them and may cause serious damage to their psyche,” Kaczyński told the press briefing on Thursday, as quoted by public TVP broadcaster.

The bill aims to criminalise the sexualisation of children, “even very little, preschool children”, said Kaczyński, adding that parents expect the sexualisation of minors, which he says takes place across the country, to be prevented.

Kaczyński and Witek did not say what specific types of actions would be criminalised, but Witek suggested that the bill would focus on LGBTQI+ education in schools.

Under the bill, parents would have the sole freedom to decide how they want to bring up their children and what they want them to watch or listen to, a right guaranteed to them by the Polish Constitution, the Sejm speaker said.

Many children feel lonely, and when they face a lot of gross and obscene content online, they absorb it, stressed Witek, adding that parents are not always aware of what their children see online or are taught in schools.

Speaking of what children face in schools, Witek provided an example of a six-year preschool child who one day allegedly returned from nursery school weeping after his teacher organised a game in which boys dressed like girls and vice versa. Witek said the boy’s mother complained to her about the teacher’s behaviour.

Poland already further restricted teaching LGBTQI+ materials in schools in late 2022, as it extended the restriction from government-nominated regional education officers to NGOs and other organisations speaking as guests in schools.

In 2022, Poland was ranked the most homophobic EU country for the third consecutive year by ILGA-Europe, while some local governments were deprived of EU funds for creating so-called “LGBT-free zones”.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)