A council website aimed at 13 to 25-year-olds has been slammed after offering sex advice which included the suggestion that 'bum sex' is used as a form of contraception.

Warwickshire County Council suspended the 'Respect Yourself' site after backlash from campaign groups said it 'normalised sadomasochistic sex and porn'.

Online advice included telling a 12-year-old girl that it was 'perfectly natural' to struggle to sleep because she was spending 'half the night' masturbating and watching porn.

It also provided descriptions of 'niche' sex acts in its 'Sextionary' to help youngsters understand terms they may have heard, as reported by the Metro .

Under a heading 'Does anal sex make you pregnant?' on the website, it read: "A lot of people think that the whole notion of anal sex is reserved for porn stars or gay men – well in fact cultures since the dawn of time have used bum sex as a form of contraception.

"It allowed couples who were not necessarily married or ready to have children a means of having penetrative sex without the risk of getting pregnant."

A spokeswoman for the campaign group Safe Schools Alliance (SSA), Tracy Shaw, said: "It’s totally inappropriate.

"Teenagers are already under so much pressure because of what they see in porn. This website is normalising porn and the type of sex teenagers are unlikely to get.

"If the message they are getting from the council is [dangerous sex] is fine, how will they feel when they are uncomfortable? They will think there is something wrong with them.

"We are not against sex education, but we need to show how damaging porn is. We are coming at this from a safeguarding point of view."

Respect Yourself, which currently says it is 'under review', contained information about issues including puberty and STIs, and also hosted a Q&A section where visitors could ask for advice.

One 12-year-old girl said she had a crush on her female music teacher and can't sleep because she is addicted to masturbation.

The response said: "What you are going through is perfectly natural for a girl your age – for some reason we have the idea that only boys gets turned on, masturbate or watch porn. That is nonsense."

It continued: "Before I go any further I need to point out that there is no way that you would ever be able to act on your feeling for your teacher."

In another section, it tells teens not to be embarrassed by porn and masturbation, saying: "You may have seen there’s been quite a lot in the media recently about the dangers and harms that porn causes to young people.

"Many people have been quite vocal and do truly believe that porn is dangerous for young people to watch.

"However, there are no scientific studies that give evidence to suggest that watching porn is any more likely to turn you into a sex addict than watching a violent film is likely to turn you into a serial killer. In fact there is more evidence to suggest the opposite."

Campaign groups SSA and Click Off started a petition against the website and still want answers over how some of the content came to be published, including the 'Sextionary' section which described some sex acts as painful.

Both say it failed to discuss the fact young women usually experience these as 'risky and coercive'.

In a joint statement, both argued it was inaccurate to say watching porn is not linked to harmful sexual behaviour.

It read: "In failing to condemn the use of pornography the Respect Yourself guidance is effectively sacrificing the best interests of women and girls in order to seem ‘sex positive.’

"The poorly reasoned approach of Respect Yourself will undoubtedly prevent many adolescents in Warwickshire from enjoying healthy, mutually enjoyable sexual relationships in adulthood."

Warwickshire County Council told the Metro: "The council carefully considers all comments raised about our services. We have decided to review the content of a few of our pages which have raised a small number of concerns."

The Mirror has approached the council for comment.

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