Unsafe Sex Practices and Poor Sex Education for Youth

Running head: SEXUALITY
Sexuality
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1SEXUALITY
Introduction:
Adolescence is a critical developmental period where youths experience changes in their
body and several external factors like values and morality, parental influence, media influence
and peer influence affect their expression of sexuality (Kar, Choudhury and Singh 2015). Self-
awareness about good sexual behaviour is important to ensure that youths do not indulge in
unhealthy sexual behaviour and increase risk of sexual diseases. However, because of the
emergence of digital media and increase in online activity of youths, young people are more
likely to engage in poor sexual activity. Change in family dynamics and parent’s reluctance to
provide sex education to children is also the reason behind increase in incidence of STI (Toor
2016). This essay reviews the issues of unsafe sex practices and poor sex education for youth by
analysing two articles discussing on the topic. The paper critically analyses the two articles to
determine the strength of each paper and the possible way forward to address the issue.
The key points given in the article published in the Strait Times is that it has raised
concern over the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among teenage boys in Singapore
who are visiting prostitutes in large numbers. The survey regarding the number of teens who had
paid for sex in Singapore revealed that every two in five teens pay for sex. The article
highlighted this as a major public concern because those visiting prostitutes do not use condoms
and they could increase the risk of STI. The article rationalized that easy access to pornography
and website advertising sexual services are the major cause behind increase in number of teens
visiting prostitutes (Tan 2016). Hence, by giving report on number of teens using prostitute, the
article indicated about the need for parents to discuss about sexuality issues with their children.
In addition, the second article suggested about the type of sexual education that young people
need to know to develop healthy relationship. By giving statistics on number of youths not using
contraceptives during sex, the article recommended implementation of comprehensive sex
education programmes to ensure that youths make better choices (Xiang and Smith 2013).
Tan (2016) raised an important point which was the negative impact of easy access to
website advertising related to sexual services and pornography on sexual behaviour of youths in
Singapore. The strength of this information is that it depicts how media has directly influences
youths today and engaged them in unsafe sexual practices. Considering the number of time
youths spend online today, it cannot be denied that online pornography has become a major