Sex Ed Through Text Messaging
Posted by: Annika Harris
Filed in:
sex
11:30AM, Monday May 4th 2009
If you take a shower before you have sex, are you less likely to get pregnant? Does a normal penis have wrinkles? If my BF doesn’t like me to be loud during sex but I can’t help it, what am I supposed to do? These questions were texted to the Birds and Bees Text Line, the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina’s latest effort to provide teens between 14 and 19 with sex education and information. Within 24 hours, every text sent in is answered by a nameless, faceless adult from the center who gives a cautious, nonjudgmental response via text. The Birds and the Bees Text Line started on February 1 and reaches teens through the one device that consumes their lives—their cellphones.
As politicians and school officials in many states try to decide whether school curricula should mention contraception, teens continue to have sex. Some public health experts and epidemiologists say sex education in classrooms is often ineffective or just insufficient. And teen pregnancy and STD rates have risen in many parts of the country. North Carolina has an abstinence-only curriculum in schools, yet the state has the ninth-highest teenage pregnancy rate.
Some public health experts, who are alarmed at the consequences of risky adolescent sexual activity, have figured out that technology is the best way to reach teens. Columbia University has the Go Ask Alice! website and Atlantic Health has TeenHealthFX. Similar to the Birds and the Bees Line, programs in D.C., San Francisco, Chicago, and Toronto allow adolescents to search the frequently asked questions menu and receive automated responses with addresses of free clinics in their area.
The internet and texting reduce shame and embarrassment and provides a level of privacy that a young person might not get from a teacher or friend. But not everyone is excited about reaching teens in these ways. Some believe these conversations should happen with parents in the home.
Let’s face it: If parents and teens were having open, nonjudgmental discussions about sex, we wouldn’t have increased teen pregnancy rates around the country, and young people wouldn’t be contracting preventable sexually transmitted diseases at such high rates. [NY Times]
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Erin G
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 11:37 am: [report]
Why let the pregnancy/STD rates rise while we sit around and wait for parents to have the time, feel comfortable enough, or give a damn enough to talk to their kids?
CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 11:39 am: [report]
It’s a good idea, but 24 hours turn around time?!?!
joyy
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 11:41 am: [report]
The county health dept. where I live just instituted something similar for my town. They newspaper article said teens here receive FOUR days of sex ed per year, which is downright pathetic.
becktasm
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 11:49 am: [report]
@CheeeeEEEEse
Seriously! Cha Cha will give me a creative and concise response to any question I send, and in only about ten minutes.
One time I asked them why my boyfriend was being so mean to me and they said “Probably because he doesn’t love you anymore.” No joke. Love Cha Cha.
killahTRAMP
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 01:51 pm: [report]
another GREAT, online resource worth mentioning… http://www.scarleteen.com
and more than likely, it won’t take them 24 hours to respond. often it’s quite prompt.. and definitely professional.
retro chic
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 10:14 pm: [report]
Kids learn more from their parents than from anyone. Ideally, parents can combo the talks with introducing and arming them with these tools. It’s more for the ongoing dialog. Parents and technology should be in concert, and aren’t either or options. I’m for it. I would also hope that the tweets include something to help kids and parents talk more, even giving a primer on pushing the talks.
killahTRAMP
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 10:22 pm: [report]
i disagree… i’ve definitely learned more from self-exploration of sources than from my parents. i think parents like to think that their kids learn from them… but i don’t think this is all reality, especially if parents only teach what they want one to know.. and not necessarily fact, or the roundabouts of everything.. though some kids do learn quite a lot of information from their parents, i think nowadays especially, with the internet and outside resources available that kids are looking and learning elsewhere. i think this program, as well as the other available tech-savvy sources, are definitely a good idea. if kids dont turn to their parents, they turn to the internet and the media as a way to educate themselves.
retro chic
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 11:32 pm: [report]
Killah, the operative word was *ideally.* But, for good or for bad, kids do learn the most from their parents, however unwittingly on both sides. Some kids do have that kind of open relationship with their parents. I did with mine, and my daughter does with me, and that is real.
I wish it were more common instead of the experience you shared that I believe is the most prevalent, also. Overall, as long as a kid has access to good info and someone he/she can trust to discuss it with (hopefully that includes the parents) is what’s most important.
In Annika’s comment, “But let’s face it, if parents and teens were having open, nonjudgmental discussions about sex…” Those discussions should begin in preschool (age-appropriately), not adolescence when starting them is too late.
fallonthecity
wrote on May 4 2009 @ 11:32 pm: [report]
@retro chic: yeah! Parents need to talk to their kids, if they aren’t already. The internet alone is not enough. In high school, you can count on your peers being dumb as rocks about sex and relationships. Parents can offer a been-there-done-that kind of perspective of what you need to know, what you can expect, what you should watch out for, and how to deal with the consequences.
Either way, I hope this is a useful tool to help educate high school kids about sex… the people I knew in high school were dumb as rocks about this stuff. Guess that’s why my county had(has?) the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state!
retro chic
wrote on May 5 2009 @ 12:15 am: [report]
fallonthecity, I guess it was important to my mom and me growing up ‘cause she felt very ripped off that her own mother told her nothing. Even verging on TMI with my mom’s “been-there-done-that perspective,” I winced but appreciated her experiences and info.
If my mom were here, she’d be all over the tweet and talking to my daughter, too. I also think part of the teen pregs dilemma is due to deeper issues of teens not being parented adequately altogether—filling a void, not just a case of bad or absent info. Some of these girls are parenting themselves thru their own pregnancies and imminent motherhood. There is no tweet for that.
Davis
wrote on May 5 2009 @ 06:56 am: [report]
This is a great way for young people to access information, but the method and information isn’t exactly new. We have been doing this with HIV prevention messages for years. Additionally, the websites listed are all replications of http://www.YouthEmbassy.com’ which started in the mid-late 90’s, which took the bible of comprehensive sex education, ‘The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality,’ and put it online. Again, good topic, but the reporting could have gone a bit deeper.
thatangrykid
wrote on June 28 2009 @ 11:17 am: [report]
To be honest, I think this service is really helpful for other teens. I kind of wish that there was something akin to this in Pennsylvania, but I wouldn’t know if there already is or not. Coming from a teen’s perspective, regardless of whether or not the parents, school, or some outside source provides the information, it needs to be out there. And much like what killah says, most of my friends and myself included have had to learn either from trial and error or the internet.
In my household, my parents aren’t the type of ‘involved’ religious people, but stick to the ideals of religion which has lead to neither of my parents affectively going over anything other than ‘use condoms’ and ‘don’t you ever have sex’. Needless to say, when I lost my virginity, I made sure that prior to it, I had talked extensively with my boyfriend and researched all aspects of sex (from safety tips to enjoying it) just to make sure I knew what I was doing and didn’t make a terrible mistake in the process.