Educate about choices
COLORED, flavored, dotted, ribbed, “fetherlite.” Like nearly everything these days, condoms can be bought online. A popular online shopping site makes a rudimentary effort to screen by asking a visitor if he or she is below or beyond 18 years. The former cannot view the site, the site warns.
Yet, nothing prevents one from clicking the button for the latter. Immediately, one is directed to about 280 choices for condoms, which, along with lubricants and sexual toys, fall under the category of “sexual wellness.” Green light
There’s no lack of choices for those seeking condoms. These are sold in pharmacies and supermarkets, positioned in attention-grabbing packaging near the cashier.
Lem still wonders why he didn’t just quickly pick a pack of six and slip this with a purchase of chips and canned soda. The high school sophomore recalled the “nightmarish” moment when his girlfriend missed a period and suspected she was pregnant.
Lem avoided her. They cooled off. She didn’t turn out to be pregnant but the damage was done. Lem says they had sex only once and he didn’t think a condom was needed because his former girlfriend was a varsity volleyball player.
They believed that her physical exertions would prevent her from conceiving. Besides, she squatted to urinate immediately after they had intercourse. Someone in his “barkada” said that this would “wash away” the sperm and prevent pregnancy, recalled Lem.
To address this explosive combination of sexual adventurism and reproductive health ignorance, officials of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd) have begun top-level discussions to roll out the government program of condom distribution.
The plan to distribute condoms among junior and senior high schoolers next year is an attempt to primarily check the increasing cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) among the youth.
Condom use for safe sex is also perceived as a strategy to prevent unplanned pregnancy among the sexually active youth. According to the 2013
Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (Yafs), one out of three Filipino youths have sex. Among young adults aged 20-24, 54 percent are sexually active. “Great sensitivity”
Aside from the rise in HIV/Aids cases among the youths, there are also more teenage pregnancies, with cases of 10-year-olds already conceiving.
DOH and DepEd officials assure the public that the program of condom distribution will be implemented with “great sensitivity.”
Admittedly, opposition is high among parents, some educators, and the religious who criticize that condom distribution will create more problems, such as promiscuity and immorality, than solutions to curb teenage pregnancy and the spread of HIV/Aids.
However, officials must balance societal pressure to proceed with cultural and religious sensitivity with the demand for timely, effective responses to young Filipinos’ changing sexual behavior.
What emerges from the 2013 Yafs is that while they may exhibit greater sexual adventurism, many Filipino youths hardly practice safe sex.
Technology promotes lifestyle changes that include sexual behaviors. According to the 2013 nationwide survey conducted by the Demographic Research and Development Foundation and the University of the Philippines Population Institute, one out of four Filipino youths (representing 25 percent of 19.2 million young people) sent or received sex videos through cell phone or the Internet.
Four in every 100 Filipino youths had intercourse with partners met online or through text messaging. Six in every 100 Filipino youths experienced phone sex. Casual sex is practiced by 1.4 million youths, with 600,000 having casual sex partners, termed as “f_ck buddies (Fubu).” There are one million young men having sex with other men (MSMs).
Aside from referring to the 2013 Yafs findings, DOH and DepEd officials must also conduct the campaign to bring information, education, and communication on the ABCs of reproductive health (A for “abstinence,” B for “be faithful,” and C for “condom use”) to the platform of choice among the youth: digital media.