Girl THOUGHTS...

The government has finally let loose its long-awaited national safer sex media campaign. Some are convinced it’s not going to have the necessary impact, others are unsure about the lack of seriousness behind the lottery metaphor. But it is a start and it’s the most visible sign that the sexual needs of young people have become a priority for government and NHS.
We asked three groups of teenage girls what they felt about sexual health, and how they thought both government and schools could improve the safer sex message to young people.
Do girls just wanna have fun?
Sixteen year-old Steph is one of the ‘Sexual Self Respect’ group working with the YWCA’s young girls volunteer project in Tonbridge, Kent.
She says about the government’s campaign: “What, the cards with things like ‘Who’s got the iffy squiffy?’ It’s taking the piss out of a serious subject and I don’t know if it really works. If you go on the website, it moves between too simplistically visual to being too text-heavy.” Zoe, another member of the Respect group, agrees.

photo posed by model.
By S. Pentleton & J. Soughan