Let’s Talk About Sex (Education)
Senior Thesis, 2018
The average American teenager consumes seven hours of digital media everyday. During that time, 75% of the content is sexually explicit but of that only 14% is medically accurate and communicates the risks and responsibilities of sex. This wouldn’t be an issue if teens were receiving that information elsewhere, like their high school sex education classes. However, they aren’t.
American public high schools teach government funded Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM), also called Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA). AOUM/SRA is a conservative, heteronormative curriculum which teaches “no sex until marriage is the standard,” and going against that “standard” will have a negative impact on the person society as a whole. In the 24 states where sex education is mandated, only 13 require it to be medically accurate, and 2 require it to be culturally/religiously unbiased.
AOUM/SRA has had no effect in reducing sexual risk behaviors or initiation amongst teens; the average teen first has sex at 17, and only 80% of them received sex education beforehand. Considering this, the current state of sex education in the US is outdated, tone-deaf, and leaves teens ignorant and unprepared in matters surrounding sex and sexual health. A revision in how sex education is approached is needed; teens need Know Sex.
Know Sex is a contemporary sex education model designed for teens and the way they consume media online. Its goal is to foster an inclusive and honest conversation surrounding sex and sexual health. It does this by introducing teens to different sex and sexual health topics through video content, and then to point them towards a trust worthy resource where they can find more information.
