The new Italian law on parental consent for sex education

On June 4, 2026, the Senate gave final approval, by 78 votes in favor and 38 against, to the so-called Valditara bill. Sex education disappears entirely from primary school and, in middle and high school, becomes possible only with written parental consent. Human Rights Watch wrote about it on June 13, and the news made the rounds across Europe. It's no surprise to anyone following Italian politics, but it's still striking to see it confirmed in a legal text.

The rule requires that every lesson or activity related to sexuality be authorized in writing by the family: without that consent, the boy or girl is left out. Schools must notify parents at least seven days before each activity and name the experts or outside organizations involved. The result is that access to sex education becomes uneven: it depends on the wishes of individual households, not on a universal right of the minor.

Italy is no stranger to these dynamics. Back in 2013, a European Parliament document mapped sex education policies across member states, and many countries had already adopted more structured approaches. The Italian law seems to be moving in the opposite direction from that trend. Anyone working on children’s rights knows this well: when sex education becomes optional, the first to lose out are kids from less informed or more restrictive families.

This isn’t about explicit content or scandalous materials. Sex education in Europe, as the WHO and BZgA report shows, is understood as a set of skills: consent, healthy relationships, prevention, respect for differences. The Italian law, by contrast, treats it as if it were morally controversial content. It’s an approach with concrete consequences.

What Europe had in place until now

In 2013, a European Parliament briefing analyzed sex education policies in various EU states. Luxembourg, for example, still based its program on a 1973 curriculum, updated in 2006 with the Ministry of Health's SASEX project. Other countries, like Germany and the Netherlands, had already made it a stable part of school curricula. Italy was already among the laggards back then.

The 2010 report by WHO Europe and BZgA had established shared standards: sex education should be based on human rights, scientific evidence, and gender equality. Today, those standards seem light-years away from the Italian political debate. The new law risks creating a paradox: minors have easier access to online pornography than to accurate, validated information.

And it’s not an ideological question. Longitudinal studies show that countries with compulsory sex education have lower rates of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. With this law, Italy is moving away from that model. It remains to be seen whether the rule will withstand legal challenges or be amended at the European level.

The practical consequences for minors

The most immediate problem is the inequality effect. A teen with open, informed parents will still receive sex education, perhaps at home or through private channels. A teen with restrictive or poorly informed parents will remain excluded. School, which should be the great equalizer, instead becomes an amplifier of family differences. It’s not so strange: it already happens with vaccines and other health choices.

In middle and high school, the law does not ban sex education, but makes it conditional on consent and an extra procedure. That means a principal or teacher, out of caution, might simply decide not to organize courses or meetings. The risk, also flagged by Human Rights Watch, is that many schools, to avoid paperwork and controversy, will drop the subject from the curriculum altogether. It's a deterrent effect already seen in other contexts, such as in the United States with parental consent laws for minors' health services.

Another aspect concerns the content itself. If a program has to be approved by parents, it is likely to be watered down, and the first topics to go are precisely the most useful ones: consent, sexual orientation, contraception. The result is a sterilized sex education that doesn't prepare young people for reality.

In many cases, those who need this information don’t have a trusted adult at home. LGBTQ+ youth, for example, often don’t have parents willing to talk openly about sexuality. With this law, they’re left without any institutional point of reference. It’s not new, but it’s a wound reopening.

Safety and assent: the crux of consent

There’s a fundamental contradiction. The law requires parental consent, but says nothing about the minor’s consent. A 16-year-old who can legally have sex in Italy cannot decide on their own to attend a sex education class. The parent has the final say, even if the minor is perfectly capable of understanding and choosing. It depends on how you look at it: on one hand, protection; on the other, denial of autonomy.

In the European debate, the informed consent of the minor is considered a fundamental principle. Reports by UNFPA and UNESCO, also cited in the WHO document, insist on the importance of respecting the young person’s agency. The Italian law does exactly the opposite: it hands every decision to the parent, even against the child’s wishes. It’s a model many European countries moved beyond long ago.

You don't need to be an expert to understand the practical effect. A teenager who lacks access to information about consent, healthy relationships, and prevention will be more vulnerable. The consequences are not abstract: unwanted pregnancies, infections, unrecognized violence. The law, in its protective intent, risks doing more harm than good. And those who work in family planning clinics and youth services know it well.

Sources and references

Sources:

• New Law Requires Parental Consent for Sex Ed in Italy | Human Rights Watch
• Policies for Sexuality Education in the European Union | European Parliament
• Sexuality Education in Europe and Central Asia | WHO Europe / BZgA
• Kinsey Institute
• NCBI/PubMed – Adolescent sexual health outcomes