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You’re sitting on the bus and you overhear the latest rumor: Pineapple juice will make a guy’s semen taste better. In disbelief, you wonder where this “fact” came from. Then, maybe you remember reading it in an e-mail forwarded by a friend or hearing it on the radio.
Only go to reputable Web sites
Photo by Hannah Rosenblum
Sorting It Out
Teens are bombarded with so much information about sex, whether from teachers, parents, textbooks, magazines, friends, even pornography. With all this information, we have to be careful what we believe. That’s why it is so important to “consider the source.”
Catherine Dawson, 17, of Aurora, Ontario, believes most teens get information about sex from “older siblings, if they have them, and friends,” even though they can be less reliable than the media. Rumors and even the best-intended advice can be false. Friends and siblings may care about you and try to help you, but they probably don’t have all the facts themselves.
Also, as Leischen Gargano, 18, of Boulder, CO, warns, “I know people [who] would make things up just to have something risqué to talk about.”
Evaluating Adults
Talking to family members and friends about sex can help you make important decisions, like whether or not you want to have sex before you’re an adult. But even your parents may lack the correct information about birth control methods or sexually transmitted infections.
“We know that young people [who] talk to their parents/ guardians on a regular basis about sexuality lead more healthy sexual lives,” says Shelagh Johnson, the youth HIV prevention coordinator for Cascade AIDS Project, in Portland, OR. “The more conversations we have, the better able we are to sort out our own feelings, values, and beliefs about our sexuality.”
But certain adults, including some health teachers, might give scary information about sex. They could, for example, exaggerate the failure rate of condoms.
“Filtering and understanding messages are important in every subject,” including evaluating the accuracy and bias of information, Johnson explains. Even sources that provide the correct information can hurt your ability to make good decisions because they fail to present all the facts.
Remember that the motives behind the message should be carefully considered. Does your health teacher only discuss abstinence and not birth control or other options? Why? Is the motive to scare teens into avoiding sex? This can be damaging because it prevents you from making smart decisions and planning for sex if you decide to have it.
Web Sites and Beyond
Even seemingly safe places, like informational Web sites, can be incorrect. Again, the creators of these Web sites may be simply misinformed or they may have other motives, namely to discourage teens from having sex.
So, when looking for the facts, you should go to reliable, expert sources. Look for Web sites sponsored by universities or medical groups, like hospitals or medical schools, for the most reliable information. Also, be suspicious of Web sites that fail to state the sources of their information, which can indicate that perhaps there are no reliable sources to cite. Search for more comprehensive information online or at clinics or youth centers.
Other good sources include your doctor and your local family planning clinic.
Teens are desperately in need of good sex education to make informed decisions. But we need to be careful that our “educators” give us complete, balanced, accurate information. Making decisions based on false facts is as bad, if not worse, than making them without any information at all.
As Gargano says: “Teens [who] think they are educated when they are not is a dangerous thing. [It will] get them into trouble in the future and they won’t understand why.”
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Revised: 10-10-2005
Posted: 10-10-2005
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