Twelve Bangkok high schools are taking part in the Smart Teen Love “Say+Play” campaign in an effort to encourage youngsters to postpone sexual encounters until they are older, and if they can’t wait, to at least protect themselves from HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases.
The Ministry of Public Health is testing the initiative with the 12 schools by providing support for birth control, safe-sex practices, self responsibility and social responsibility – and (with fingers crossed about not becoming the target of teenage ridicule) songs about safe sex and “delaying copulation”, FM91 Bkk reported.
Research has shown rising HIV rates in Thai teens, especially among homosexuals – from 2003-3007 infection rates among homosexuals increased from 17 percent to 31 percent. This year there are 12,000 HIV-positive teenagers in Bangkok, 30 percent of which are male homosexuals, the report said.
The report also states that 41 percent of homosexual male teens believe that having sex with only their lover is enough to prevent getting HIV, even if they don’t use a condom – some also believe that having sex with many partners is not abnormal because “they are men just like them.”
Inadequacies in understanding the dangers of unprotected sex are shockingly apparent in areas outside of Bangkok, the report further explains: many teens think that simply washing body parts utilized in sexual encounters is enough to prevent getting sexually transmitted diseases.
