First the Women's Institute released a video sex guide and now the scouts are at it, so to speak. The Scout Association is to teach recruits about sex and give advice on sexual health.

"Be prepared" is the motto of the movement, the Times reminds us, while also making clear that Robert Baden-Powell, its founder, would certainly not have approved.

"In Scouting for Boys he advised those who feel sexual urges to 'wash your parts in cold water and cool them down'," says the Times. No blushing now.

"In a later book, Rovering to Success," the Times continues, "[Baden-Powell] wrote that young men should not indulge their 'primitive sexual urges' but should put their energies into hiking and the enjoyment of out-of-door manly activities rather than 'aimless loafing and smutty talks'."

But times move on, as the WI clearly demonstrated when it released its guide to battery-operated marital aids.

"We must be realistic and accept that around a third of young people are sexually active before 16 and many more start relationships at 16 and 17," said the chief scout, Peter Duncan.

He added that "with over 450,000 members, scouting touches members of every community, religious and social group in the country … adults in scouting have a duty to promote safe and responsible relationships, and as an organisation we have the responsibility to provide sound advice about how to do that".

The Scout Association says the plans will develop confidence, maturity and self-esteem in young members.

Plans include handing out condoms to prevent unprotected sex and advising where to get pregnancy tests (around 15% of scouts are girls). Although the new policy will apply to all age groups from six-year-olds and above, only explorer scouts, aged 14-18, will visit sexual health clinics and do "how to say no" role-playing.

The Daily Mail has wheeled out a couple of traditionalists who say this is "political correctness" gone mad. Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education says in the Mail: "They should be sticking to the traditional activities of camp fires and sing-songs instead of learning about sexually transmitted diseases and emergency contraception."

It seems not everyone wants to move on from the good old days of Baden-Powell.

* Based on an extract from the Wrap, guardian.co.uk's digest of the day's news