Indonesia gets text sex ed service
Link: Dr Love brings good sex to Indonesia
Young Indonesians will no longer be misinformed about sex, as Fiesta Condoms launches a sex education text service in the country.
“We learned that nearly 50 percent of young Indonesians were learning about sex from watching pornographic movies,” Fiesta Condoms representative Christopher Purdy said.
“We believed that there was an important need for information — especially considering the high number of unwanted pregnancies among young people here… young Indonesians have so many questions about sex but do not know where to go for answers. This hotline will answer any question you have without judging you,” he added.
If, after that interesting statistic on the habits of Indonesian teens and their viewing habits, you think the article couldn’t get any more amusing, just check out the text number:
The hotline service allows teenagers and anyone with access to a mobile phone from all over Indonesia to send their queries to a panel of Indonesian doctors by text messaging to +65 94 DRLOVE (+65 943 75683) anonymously, allowing plenty of privacy and freedom to enquire about a topic that is largely a social taboo.
Wicked. And what does “Dr. Love”, aka Dr. Wei Siang Yu - founder of Love Airways (no really), a partner in the programme - have to say about it all?
“Sex education should be for the people and by the people. It should be (available) anytime and anywhere and if doctors can support public health and use current multimedia technology, many social problems can be solved,” the lively doctor said, referring to issues like HIV and sexually transmitted disease infections, unwanted pregnancies and fertility issues.
I’m not sure if I want advice “by the people” given the previous statistic on where they learn their information from.. not too sure about getting help from a “lively doctor” either.
Anyway, in all seriousness, it looks like a good solution to help with some of the issues of concern amongst young adults in the country.
I think that starting an initiative like this in the UK would be a blooming good idea too. We have some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STI rates in Europe, so something must be failing on the education front in the UK.
Posted by Loulou on July 19th, 2007 at 10:36 pm.I think your link is off. It points to: “Plot thickens around street-child murder”.
Posted by Rosario on July 20th, 2007 at 3:51 pm.The link was right, but it seems they decided to remove the article. Have repointed it to an alternative source.
Thanks for letting me know!
Alex
Posted by Alex on July 20th, 2007 at 4:08 pm.