Youth, sex, taboos and condoms
Verkuyl, D.A.
Safaids News Southern Africa Aids Information Dissemination Service Bulletin 6(2): 10-11
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 1029-3256 PMID: 12222366 Document Number: 526570
This paper compares the two main approaches that prevent the exposure of youths to the risks related to sex as well as their effectiveness in educating young people about sex. Approach A is to equip young people before they have sex with enough knowledge, moral standards, and materials to make sex enjoyable without exposing them to too much risk. Approach B is to create taboos about sexual relationships outside formal marriage and enforce the taboos using culture or religion. This method often results in people being given little information and even misinformation. It is shown that approach A is more highly favored than approach B and showed better results in reduction of sex risks. However, approach B is not a complete nonsense since it was successful in many religious communities such as the Moslem world, and some claim this system used to work widely in Africa in the past. Overall, it is noted that the people either need a whole-hearted B-type approach, necessitating a complete transformation of the society or the A approach of openness, everybody being informed, and 100% support for condoms in all sexual relations with any risk.