Planning Association has already begun an ongoing campaign of leaflets aimed at young girls and boys
specifically around raising awareness of infections like chlamydia and gonorrhoea. Reducing teenage pregnancy rates, it goes without saying, is high on their list too, although this area of sexual health won't be included in the first wave of government-sponsored safer sex education advertising. Statistical shocks around these figures did alert women's and teen magazines to the problem, and this has also helped raise awareness of the issues.
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The web-based youth sex education charity AVERT hosts
a very successful and popular site mainly aimed at young people. Director
Annabel Kanabus says: "We desperately need a refresher media campaign
that gets across the basic facts. And it's got to be on TV: nothing else
is half as effective for people."
"It's particularly the younger generation, who were born after 1987
and never knew the big 80s Aids campaign. They're now 14 or 15, and if
their school isn't good for sex education they may have just had one lesson
that mentions HIV and STIs.
Da
Playa's Klub get moody...
Photo: Rose de Freitas
And the gender differences?
"Girls get more info than boys through girlie mags. So boys rely
on their sister's copy of say Sugar or Bliss. But then most of these publications
concentrate on pregnancy rather than anything else surrounding teenage
sexual health. I still get asked by gay and straight young people: 'Does
anal sex give me HIV and Aids?' You see, no understanding of what it is
and how it's transmitted!
The other goal behind the government's Safer Sex campaign is to encourage
a far greater uptake of sexual health screenings at clinics.
The Sheffield Centre for HIV and Sexual Health has been producing resources and training tools for young people for years.
