Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE HSE HAS announced the launch of a new website to provide relationship and sexual information to young people.
The website is part of the B4uDecide initiative developed by the HSE’s Crisis Pregnancy Programme in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the National Youth Council Ireland (NYCI)
It aims to encourage teenagers to make healthy, responsible decisions about relationships and sexual health and to delay early sex among teens.
The Programme recently surveyed 100 15-18-year-olds to collect data that gives an overview of how aware young people are of the B4uDecide website, whether they would visit the site, what information they would like on the site and where they would like it promoted.
Just the facts
More than anything, young people said that they wanted the ‘facts without the lecture’. They wanted information relating to STIs, contraception, age of consent, relationships, peer pressure, sexual assault and also more information for parents. They also wanted faster downloads, more interactivity and personal stories.
When asked where they would go for information, they said family, friends and the internet.
The website, B4udecide.ie now features video interviews with young people talking about their own experiences and real life stories from teenage parents. It also features new quizzes and polls, faster downloads and information on building healthy friendships and relationships, peer pressure, feeling good about yourself, why it’s better to wait before having sex, the age of consent, contraception, STIs, crisis pregnancy and much more.
Pressure
Speaking this week at the launch of the website, Dr Cate Hartigan, HSE Head of Health Promotion and Improvement said young people “experience immense pressure from a range of sources including their peers, boyfriends, girlfriends and the media”.
“How teenagers differ is in their ability to cope with and respond to 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,” she added. “In doing this, we can help them face the many challenges that they encounter during early adolescence and not rush into sexual activity at an early age.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Wow! Such a good step forward! I remember when I was about 15, my biology teacher (a nun) – told us that we’d skip over the section about contraception in the textbook because ‘being Catholic, that didn’t and wouldn’t apply to us…..’
Yep…..
This is one of the reasons I laugh my ass off at parents who still, these days, talk about how they want a ”catholic ethos” in their kids school…because it has absolutely no real relevance anymore. 90% of these parents would be horrified if catholic social dogma on things like homosexuality was taught in their kids school, and frequently the guidance counsilers at these supposed ”catholic ethos” schools are teaching them the total opposite of that stuff anyway so the whole catholic ethos stuff has no relevance.
Waiting for the DART one day I overheard two guys coming back from rugby training in blackrock talking about Haggards Law, which amazed me, even today. When we were in school we got 5050 sex ed but them being aware enough of the Haggards Law phenomenon really impressed me, and showed what total nonsense the idea of a catholic ethos is now, as their school is meant to have one and it’s all over the journals, school website, literature etc.
Many years back when I was a college student I used to buy condoms by the dozen from the students union shop and sell them at the local dance hall when home for the weekend. In those days it was next to impossible to find rubbers out in the sticks. Christ, it was great business, I made enough to keep myself and the moth in a truly sinful lifestyle. A big ‘thank you’ to the Catholic Church for making it all possible.
Remember Johnnys got you covered!
We used to refer to them as Seanin Glantors as we weren’t allowed to call them Johnies .. Wow I feel liberated this morning just saying it …. Johnies. Johnies.
Anything at all is an improvement on what we got in Ireland in the 80′s so even if it helps even a small % of Teens today then it can only be a good thing
This is a great idea. Knowledge is power. I was a teen in the 80′s so there was zero Sex Ed and no place to go to find out stuff except the Just 17 mag. I learnt about the birds n bees by trial and error. A little trial. A lot of error.
At least we had Madonna. She thought me all i know (which isnt much). Maybe i need to check out this website. I might learn something!
Let’s hope it’s full of cartoon characters “with attitude” to teach the youngsters about staying safe. Maybe a “hip hop” crew called The Kool Kidz could do a rap tune also.
I’m sure all the kids will think it’s radical…
‘Grease up and shove it home’
-HSE 2014
Interesting. One minute people are bitching that there’s no proper sex Ed anywhere, the next it’s because there is.
You’re not meant to take it seriously, significant. It’s just a slogan. We have no idea why there’s so many teenage pregnancies, so it must be that the government is doing it wrong. Never mind that 30 years of increasing sex education has failed to make the slightest difference.
The drop in teen pregnancy could also be due to the high levels of male youths walking around playing “pocket snooker” with themselves. :)
Could this also be due to pregnancy kits being freely available is Supermarkets so no doctor visit required and then a cheap Ryanair flight to the UK.
Young people want blah blah blah? Nah, I’m pretty sure they just want sex. No website required.
100 teenagers surveyed? Not exactly comprehensive, you’d get that many in one school.
And what a terrible, terrible name. B4uDecide? That might have flown in 1998, but not now. It sounds like it’ll be a staid, bland site that offers very little info so as to offend nobody. I’m sure it’ll be roundly and rightly ignored by its target audience, and quietly let die, another white elephant to add to the list.
I’d rather see some of the no doubt high cost of this project go to someone like SpunOut, who can reach young people. Plus it’d upset the likes of Michelle ‘Fornication’ Mulherin, and her ‘information is tantamount to encouragement’ attitude.
At the moment all is giving is a 404 error message..
Iona will go ape !!!!
What about plain old fashioned abstinence? Or waiting?
Waiting for what?
@wesole Why don’t you make your own website?
It’ll get about as many hits as a site for teens on what they already know about sex.
So long as ALL the options and their merits and pitfalls are explained then talking about abstinence is fine.
When you say waiting, what exactly are you waiting for??
This is the attitude that ruined this country for decades, waiting for what, past the prime
This is actually a question that deserves a serious answer, people mock the question without ever answering it. The answer is not ”cos it’s not fun to abstain”, there is a real serious answer: it does not work.
Study after study after study has shown that people who are taught the abstinance method:
1. Have sex earlier
2. Are far more likely to get pregnant or get an STI because when they do do it they don’t use protection
3. They ”cheat”, in really laughable ways. One study I read quoted girls explaining that taking it anally meant they were still virgins because they’d had no vaginal penetration.
So in short, the reason to avoid it is not because it’s not fun or they won’t listen (both equally good arguments if you ask me) it’s because not only does it not work but as a policy it tends to have the exact opposite effect from what is intended.
We mock the old conservative IReland but it’s still there to an extent in terms of the shame around sex, even though guys and girls are more liberal than they used to be women still live in dreaded fear of the word ”slut” and esp since so many diff people define the word so many diff ways.
I remember our guidance counselor (after we got 5050 same sex-opposite sex sex ed classes) in a sorta ”life class” we had openly telling us ”you’ll find as you get older with all the crap you have to put up with in life, all the challenges, all the heartbreak, all the struggles, that sex is one of the few constant good things, it’s something to enjoy not be ashamed of” and that’s turned out to be so true.
There’s that word again. Slut. But a guy’s a stud. Will someone please explain the gender differentiation please?
Women judge each other more then men that’s the main difference .
After all any guy will tell you we love sluts
Well said Ryan. An important part of any sex ed should be to focus on respect, respect for yourself and respect for your partner. Everything else follows naturally from that. Respecting yourself means you practice safe sex and only engage in sexual activities you feel comfortable with and with people you feel comfortable with. Sex is not a bad thing or something to feel ashamed about. The more openly young people are able to talk about sex the more likely they are to make mature and responsible decisions about sex.
Cue Michelle Mulherin coming in screaming “think of the children” while once again drawing more attention to the thing she is complaining about revealing she still doesn’t understand the Streisand effect
Great news. Too bad all you see on http://www.b4udecide.ie is a 404 error :)) http://twitpic.com/ec48gu
OK – so I wasn’t the only one then.. That’s a great initiative – ask the information you need is a 404 error – got it. The HSE have really outdone themselves with this one..
All.. Not ask.. Damnit..
@ Wesloe, wait for what, YOLO
have your say