Thousands sign Italian porn actor Rocco Siffredi's petition to have sex education taught in schools

Rocco Siffredi: ‘I wanted to launch this appeal because sex is a magnificent thing’

Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, also known as the 'Italian stallion' (Getty)

An Italian porn actor has garnered thousands of supporters after launching a petition to include sex education in the curriculum of Italy’s schools, and offering to be a teacher himself.

Rocco Siffredi, also known as the ‘Italian stallion’, launched a petition on change.org demanding the Italian government makes sex education a mandatory subject.

The petition, addressed to Italian Education Minister Stefania Giannini, had been signed by 29,417 people by Monday.

Mr Siffredi, 51, wrote on the petition’s page: “I wanted to launch this appeal because sex is a magnificent thing.

“I put forth my name and my experience, I make myself fully available to go into Italian schools and personally promote this initiative.”

Very few schools teach sex education in Italy, and the ones that do teach the subject based only on biology, according to Euronews.

A 2013 European Parliament report titled ‘Sexual Education in Europe’ said despite “many proposals and compromises [made] during the last 30 years”, the Ministry of Education must still consider the conservative “views of the Church”.

Mr Siffredi intends to change this, after observing young people are using porn as sex education.

“Pornography should be entertainment, but due to lacking alternatives, it has become a means to learn, especially for young people,” he wrote.

“I have been doing my work for 30 years and I have acquired enough experience to guarantee that what I do is not sex education.”