Articles · August 16, 2023

The Best Videos for Sex Education (for Adults 18+)

Six verified sex education videos and documentaries made for adults, covering pleasure, communication, and consent, plus how to spot good ones yourself.

The Best Videos for Sex Education (for Adults 18+)

If you're an adult looking for the best videos for sex education to learn more about your body, pleasure, and relationships, quality sex education videos can be a genuinely useful, non-judgmental place to start. Whether you grew up with little to no sex education at all, or you simply want a refresher now, video is often easier to absorb than a textbook: you can watch real people talk through real questions, and pause or rewatch anything that isn't clear the first time. Every resource on this list is made for and about adults; nothing here is aimed at anyone underage. Each title was checked before it was included, rather than padding the list with anything invented. Here are six sex education videos worth your time, plus a few pointers for finding more on your own.

Sex, Explained: A Netflix Series of Sex Education Videos

Sex, Explained is a five-episode documentary series that premiered on Netflix in 2020, narrated by Janelle Monae. Each episode stands alone and is built around a single topic: attraction, fantasies, birth control, fertility, and childbirth. It's a good starting point precisely because the episodes are short and topic-specific, so you can watch just the one that matches whatever question brought you here, without committing to a whole course. The tone stays factual and warm rather than shocking, which makes it comfortable to watch solo or with a partner.

The Principles of Pleasure: A Documentary on Pleasure and the Body

This three-part Netflix documentary, released in 2022, looks at female, transgender, and non-binary pleasure specifically, an angle mainstream sex education often skips. The three episodes, covering bodies, minds, and relationships, mix expert interviews with first-person stories to unpack why the orgasm gap exists and what actually helps close it. If most of what you learned growing up focused on risk and reproduction, this is a useful counterweight that treats pleasure as a normal, worthwhile subject on its own.

OMGYES: Interactive Sex Instruction Videos on Pleasure Techniques

OMGYES is an age-verified, 18-and-up platform built around research on women's sexual pleasure, developed with academic partners. Instead of one documentary, it's a library of short videos: real women demonstrating specific touch techniques, paired with interviews and interactive exercises where you practice recognizing a technique on screen. It's a paid platform rather than a free one, but it's one of the few resources that treats pleasure as something you can study and practice, not just something you're supposed to already know.

Slutever: A Documentary Series on Modern Sexuality

Slutever ran for two seasons on Viceland between 2018 and 2019, hosted by writer Karley Sciortino. Each episode takes a journalistic approach to a specific corner of adult sexuality, from non-monogamy to sex work to kink communities, with Sciortino interviewing the people actually living it. It won't teach you one specific skill the way a how-to video would, but it's genuinely good at normalizing the sheer range of ways adults structure their sex lives, which can be reassuring if your own interests have ever felt unusual to you.

Sex with Sunny Megatron: A TV Series on Adult Sexuality

This eight-episode series aired in 2014 and follows sex educator Sunny Megatron as she and a co-host sit down with experts and everyday couples to talk through a different theme each episode, including communication, body image, and various kinds of adult play. It leans more toward entertainment than a strict classroom format, but the underlying information (consent, communication, dispelling myths) is solid, and watching real couples talk openly about their sex lives can make these conversations feel less awkward to start yourself.

Betty Dodson's Self-Loving Videos: Pioneering Sex Education for Adults

Betty Dodson was a sex educator who, starting in the 1970s, produced a series of instructional videos on masturbation and body awareness, later continuing the work with her collaborator Carlin Ross. These videos are plain in style rather than polished, but they were among the first to treat solo pleasure as a legitimate, teachable skill instead of a taboo subject. If you want to understand your own body better before focusing on a partner, this is one of the few resources built specifically around that goal.

How to Choose the Best Videos for Sex Education as an Adult

Beyond this list, you'll come across plenty of other sex education videos online, and not all of them are worth your time. A few criteria help separate the useful ones from the noise:

  • Check who made it. Look for an actual named sex educator, therapist, or academic institution behind the content, not an anonymous account.
  • Watch for specifics. Useful videos give you concrete information (how, why, what to try) rather than vague reassurance.
  • Notice the tone. It should stay non-judgmental about differences in bodies, orientation, and relationship style, without shaming any of them.
  • Skip anything performative. If a video is clearly built to shock or go viral rather than inform, look elsewhere.
  • Cross-check big claims. If something surprising is stated as fact, see whether a reputable source, like a university, a licensed therapist, or a public health body, says the same thing.

Talking About It: Bringing Sex Education Videos Into Your Relationship

Watching sex education videos with a partner can open doors that are hard to open cold. Try picking one together and treating it as a conversation starter rather than a test: pause it and ask what stood out, or what you'd want to try. Useful phrases include "I liked the part about..." or "I've never really thought about that, have you?" If a topic feels tender, it's fine to say "can we come back to this later" and actually revisit it, rather than letting it drop. The goal isn't to agree on everything a video says, it's to build a shared vocabulary for talking about sex at all.

Sex Education Videos FAQ

Are sex education videos actually accurate?

It depends entirely on the source. The titles on this list were chosen because they involve real sex educators, academic partners, or established documentary teams, which is a reasonable baseline for accuracy. Random social media clips are a different story and deserve more skepticism.

Do I need a partner to watch these?

No. Every resource on this list works fine watched alone, and several, like OMGYES and Betty Dodson's videos, are built around understanding your own body first.

Are any of these free to watch?

Sex, Explained, The Principles of Pleasure, Slutever, and Sex with Sunny Megatron are available through streaming subscriptions you may already have. OMGYES and Betty Dodson's videos are paid, standalone purchases.

What if a video mentions something my doctor never brought up?

That's common, since many doctors have limited time for sexual health during a standard appointment. Bring it up directly at your next visit if it's a health question, and treat video content as a starting point for that conversation rather than a replacement for it.