A new campaign by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) designed to encourage teenagers to delay sexual activity has been welcomed by the Iona Institute. The director of the Institute, David Quinn, said that the campaign’s premise, that premature sexual activity had serious health costs, was unsurprising.
The new "b 4 u decide" campaign, developed by the CPA, comprises a website and other materials designed to encourage teenagers to make informed decisions about relationships and sex.
Young people who engage in sex before the age of consent (17) are more likely to experience crisis pregnancy, to have an abortion and to contract a sexually transmitted disease, according to research carried out by the agency.
“Discovering that people who have sex before they are 17 are more likely to become pregnant in the case of women, and contract an STD in the case of both sexes, is a bit like discovering that eating too much chocolate will make you fat,” Mr Quinn said. “It’s not exactly a surprise, is it?” he went on.
The only way to combat these trends, Mr Quinn added, was to “teach teenagers to delay having sex and to combat the overwhelming sexualisation of society.”
Speaking at the launch of the programme, Prof Hannah McGee of the Royal College of Surgeons said that young people who had sex at an early age “were also more likely to express regret - to say that they wished they waited longer."
Professor McGee added that there was a myth that most teenagers were having early sexual experience.
In fact, figures show that the majority of Irish young people wait until they are 17 or more to have sex. Less than one-third of young adult men (18 to 24-year-olds) and 22 per cent of young women say they had sex before the age of 17.
Over 200 young people, 40 adults and 16 parents were involved in the creation of the project, which is aimed at parents, youth workers and teachers as well as teenagers.
The website features, quizzes, polls and video interviews with young people on forming healthy relationships, dealing with peer pressure and reasons why it is better to wait to have sex.
Caroline Spillane, director of the CPA, said young people experienced immense pressure from their peers, boyfriends and girlfriends, and the media, but differed in their ability to cope with these pressures.
"State organisations, parents, teachers and youth workers must work together to ensure that all young people are similarly equipped with the knowledge and confidence to handle the pressures they experience, and make healthy, informed decisions about relationships and sex."
Launching the initiative yesterday, Clíona Ní Chiosain, the star of TG4's Aifric, said it would be a lifeline for teenagers because it provided non-judgmental information.
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