It's the "touchy-feely" end of the curriculum - relationships, drugs, sex, abortion, divorce, crime. The kind of subject matter which could lead to an outraged parent invading the school to berate the hapless teacher who dared mention abortion in a sex education lesson. PSHE (personal, social and health education) is controversial, difficult to teach and avoided like the plague by many teachers.
Martin Buczkiewicz, the new director of alcohol education charity Tacade, describes chatting to a teacher at an airport on return from holiday.
"Oh no," said the horrified teacher on discovering Buczkiewicz's job, "PSHE - that's a disaster."
And is ICT the best way to deal with these issues anyway? Some teachers argue that teaching about moral issues and relationships is not best progressed by plonking a child down in front of keyboard, but Dave Hassall, head of curriculum projects at Becta (British Educational Communications Technology agency), disagrees.
"If you're talking about a difficult issue," he says, "tools which help kids develop their knowledge and then test their understanding are a useful complementary resource to the traditional discussion lesson."
But teachers who want to use ICT to give the subject some oomph face a paucity of suitable resources.
"If we do a search on our database," says Hassall, "it's thinly populated with resources for PSHE." Sadly, when I searched the National Grid for Learning database maintained by Becta, I could not find any resources for PSHE.
The DfEE's national curriculum site (www.nc.uk.net/) gives the curriculum orders with a detailed explanation, but a trawl for the kind of resources and links available for other subjects reveals nothing for PSHE.
"It tends to be the same in PE where it's fundamentally about kids doing things actively," said Hassall. But ICT resources do exist - and more are on the way.
The starting point for those interested in using the web for PSHE should be the Health Education Authority's www.wiredforhealth website which offers advice, information and contacts on a whole range of issues. Aimed at teachers, it covers issues ranging from accidents, to mental health, to sun safety. All the links and references have been checked for content and a look at the site will allow other net resources to be approached with more confidence.
WiredforHealth is the top level of a series of sites aimed at each key stage. Mindbodysoul is the key stage 4 site with information for the 14-16 age group, with links to over 100 other health websites.
Mindbodysoul gives details about a wide range of medical conditions including acne, ME, diabetes, asthma and anaphylaxis. Launched in November it averages 30,000 hits a week.
This week the key stage 3 site, Lifebytes, will be launched at the Education Show (March 23-25) at Birmingham's National Exhbition Centre - and sites for key stages 1 and 2 are under development.
"We're trying for a different look and feel for each age group," said Cath Herman at the Health Education Authority.
"We wanted these sites to be as accessible as possible for teachers. The internet is not a substitute for the kind of discussion lesson that many schools use to deliver PSHE. But using the net really excites children. It reinforces their learning and, for these kinds of sensitive issue, there's the added benefit of anonymity."
The authority argues that online learning communities can be very successful, and it is hoping that the WiredforHealth sites, designed by Alison Milne, will become genuinely interactive.
"For PSHE that would be crucial," said Ms Herman.
• More information on www.wiredforhealth.gov.uk, www.mindbodysoul.gov.uk, www.lifebytes.gov.uk (live on Thursday March 23)
