Balinese youngsters on Tuesday encouraged the media to provide more interesting, relevant and pro-youth sexual education stories in order to increase young people's understanding, Balinese teenager activists told a media gathering.
"I really hope the media can provide more stories on sexual education by using sources who can speak our language and style. Don't just come up with stories about lifestyle as they might be interesting but not that useful," Vivin Ariantini, a student activist, told the gathering.
She said it was difficult to find stories that discussed sexual education from a young person's point of view.
"The only stories which include sex topics are those about night life, rape and murder cases; these don't give us information in ways we can understand and use," Vivin said.
"Actually, most teenagers like to read sex education articles written by their peers as it sounds closer to their daily experiences. The media should also give space to these youngster activists so they can tell of their expertise in this area."
She said knowledge on how to avoid pre-marital sexual intercourse and how to discuss sexual matters with parents were just some of the topics she and other youngsters were looking for.
Organized by the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) Bali office in coordination with the National AIDS Commission (KPA) Bali office and the Bali Youth Foundation, the media gathering was conducted to commemorate International Teenager Day, which fell on Aug. 12.
Yudha Prabawa, another student activist, said the lack of proper sex education information meant most teenagers took advice from many places, without considering the quality of the sources.
Articles on how to enlarge the size of one's penis and what kind of condoms deliver the most satisfaction during intercourse were just some of the examples of what young people are getting from the internet and other printed media.
"Most of our friends often look for information on the internet and unfortunately they can only find more entertainment and no useful or proper information, so in the end they are just trapped, enjoying pornography," Yudha said.
Bali Youth Organization's chairman Made Oka Negara M.D, one of the meeting's speakers, said he believed all parties should be concerned because the absence of adequate sex education could result in greater problems in the future.
He said infectious diseases such as gonorrhea and syphilis -- and of course the deadly HIV/AIDS virus -- have been threatening the lives of many young people. Additionally, unplanned pregnancies have social implications and usually jeopardize their futures.
Data from PKBI shows that out of 65 million Indonesian teenagers, 15 million give birth annually outside of marriage. In addition, approximately 80 percent of new HIV/AIDS patients per year are teenagers.
"If media could deliver more interesting stories, encouraging teenagers to be more responsible in their sexual activities, perhaps they will change their behavior accordingly," Oka said.
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