eNEWSLETTER
June 2009
Our Mission Statement:
"Providing a range of innovative professional services, empowering our clients to positively address issues affecting their lives."
Our office hours are from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. After hours and Saturday appointments are available on request.
Teaching Teenagers about
STIs AND PRACTICING SAFE SEX
We are flooded with sexual images from the media every day of our lives. A teenager’s perception of sex and sexuality can be distorted by incorrect or misleading information from a variety of sources including magazines, television and other teenagers.
Many parents and carers feel shy about broaching the topic of sex with their children. Some prefer to stay silent and assume their children will pick up what they need to know from school and the media. Others believe that telling children about sex will encourage sexual experimentation. In fact, young people need to be informed if they are to act responsibly and safely and we cannot rely solely on the media or school to lead the way.
For many young people; sex education starts in the final years of primary school and for others, not at all. One of the problems with these programs is that there is no national program in Australia and each state differs in educating young people about the risks involved and the ramifications of unsafe sexual practices. Also it is not mandatory and parents are able to exercise the right to exclude their child from accessing the information. The sad reality is that most young people are aware of the birds and the bees prior to attending any of these programs. Many are told that the only way to avoid unsafe sex is “abstinence”, but the reality is there is a need to educate our children about other issues such as birth control, relationships and emotions, gender roles, STI’s and safe sex practices.
Whilst we are not abdicating that we feel children should engage in these practices at such early ages, we are simply stating that the information children are being provided with is sometimes flawed and as parents are their children’s role models in their younger years, they need to set the standard.
The facts as they stand in Australia
- In general more parents think they’ve had “the talk” about sexual health than teens do (80% vs. 73%), with 20% of parents admitting that they have never had the conversation with their teenager.
- Less than half of teens who have received sex education at school claim to not have been taught topics such as sexual decision making (51%), emotional aspects of sex (39%) and non-consensual sex (43%).
- 66% of teens and 75% of parents support mandatory sex education in schools.
Preparing in advance
As a parent or carer, you can prepare yourself for discussions about sex with your teenager:
Talk about the issue with your partner or other carers.
Decide what kind of values and messages you want to deliver.
Read up on current sexual issues.
Accept that your teenager may have different views to your own.
Buy or borrow relevant books, magazines or videos.
Remember that the aim is to discuss the topic with your child, not give a lecture
What to talk about
Sex education involves more than just the biological mechanics of reproduction. Ideally, a variety of important topics should be covered including:
- Relationships and emotions
- Sexual feelings
- Values
- Gender roles
- Sexuality
- Sexually transmissible infections (STIs)
- Birth control options including emergency contraception (the ‘morning after pill’)
- Safer sex practices
- Sexual preferences
- How to say ‘no’ to unwanted sex
- Pregnancy, including options such as abortion, adoption or parenting.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
In 2008 there were over 58,000 notifications of Chlamydia nationwide and of those notifications, over 1 in 4 (15,000) were recorded for males and females aged 19 or under.
The facts
Although 61% of teens rate their knowledge of sexual health issues as good/excellent:
- nearly half (45%) were not aware that they could be infected with Chlamydia but have no symptoms;
- 3 in 10 (30%) teens were unaware whether they could contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs) from oral sex; and
- Over half (52%) think that by using a condom, they won’t contract herpes.
Why are young people especially at risk?
Anyone who has unprotected sex risks getting an infection. Young people are usually less experienced in or confident about sexual relationships and sometimes unknowingly put themselves at risk. The reasons for this might be:
- Low awareness about the dangers of STIs. Many young people just don’t know how common STIs are or that they can easily happen to ‘people like them’. Many wrongly believe that they can tell if someone has one. Not true! How someone looks, their sexual orientation or their cultural background isn’t enough to make the call.
- Changing partners more frequently. It’s common for young people to experiment before entering a long-term relationship. This means young people are more likely to come into contact with someone who has an STI.
- Not knowing ‘safe sex’ is about more than avoiding pregnancy. Sex without a condom increases the risk of getting an STI or passing it onto someone else. Some people may intend to use them but not have any in the heat of the moment – studies show that almost fifty percent of young people don’t always carry condoms. Many others find it difficult to ask partners to use them, either through embarrassment or because they don’t know how to handle the more common excuses. There are lots of excuses but none are as important as the reasons to use condoms.
- Not getting regular check-ups for possible infections as they don’t feel personally at risk of having an STI. Although many of these infections don’t show any obvious signs, they can have a serious health impact if left untreated. Infrequent testing means that many young people don’t even know that they are spreading these infections further.
References
- Your trouble shooters guide to sexually transmitted infections and infections of the reproductive system;
- Sex Education and Teenagers
- The Facts about safe sexual practices;
- Marie Stokes, Sexual and reproductive health care;
- Young people and STIs
- Safe Sex Message for Queensland