Protection Through the Web and Apps
In this age of eroding privacy and some very public attacks on women’s intimate activities, it’s really refreshing to see a program in parts of California that enables teenagers to buy and otherwise get their hands on condoms via direct response.
Earlier this month, the California Public Health Department got together with some nonprofits like the MTV Staying Alive Foundation to launch the TeenSource website. Here, teenagers can find the products and get information about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), birth control and other pertinent issues.
The foundation also just launched its iCondom app to help teens find local retail establishments through global positioning devices on their cellphones.
Most of all, TeenSource wants to spread the word about preventing not only unwanted pregnancies but also about STDs. Naturally, it’s using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach the group.
Taking a page from erotic products supplier the Adam and Eve catalog, TeenSource is shipping the products in plain unmarked packages.
Of course–especially in this country–there’s always gonna be somebody who thinks teenagers should practice abstinence to avoid this sort of thing, according to the Huffington Post .
What planet are they living on? As everybody knows it’s always better to accept reality and know what you’re dealing with—especially in the age of AIDS, not to mention all the other STDs out there.
This makes me think of 30 or so years ago when, at the height of AIDS hysteria, some people in the highest reaches of the federal government also preached abstinence until cooler heads like that of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop prevailed and urged condom use.
Right now, TeenSource looks like a clever way to impart necessary information to adolescents in a discreet enough manner to avoid embarassing them.
