Having a comprehensive sex education program is essential in assisting young individuals to make smart decisions about sex and to favor healthy sexual behaviors. Research has shown that abstinence only programs are not as effective in delaying the intuition of sex and it does not result in students protecting themselves when they do decide to have sex. However the US government still spends more than a billion dollars only supporting the abstinence only programs. Though this fact is ignored by the government even today, adolescents do have the right to comprehensive sexual health information. It has been proven through research that effective sex education programs actually have a great role to play in HIV prevention, and the long term impacts include lower STI and pregnancy rates.
In the research conducted between 1991 and 2004, results have shown that teen birth rates fell from 62 percent to 41 percent. Experts say that 75 percent of the decline can be attributed to the use of contraception and 25 percent to the delayed initiation of sex. Therefore providing teens comprehensive information on sexual education is essential to reduce teen pregnancies and spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Many opponents might argue that having such open sex education programs might give rise to early initiation of sexual activities amongst students and hence abstinence only programs are more efficient. Well it is obvious that despite abstinence programs some teenagers will still indulge in sexual activity at an early age and therefore it is safer to teach them about protection and safe sex than to insist that they abstain, hence a comprehensive sexual program seems more appropriate. A very important part of a comprehensive sex program is a sex education magazine. In sex education classes details are given on how to try and best abstain, but if one does decide to be sexually active then the measures they should take. Students are taught on how to use condoms, and other ways to stay safe. In addition to these classes it can also be effective to have a sex education magazine that is distributed which provides these students more information on other detailed topics. The distribution of this magazine can be a great way to answer the other queries of students which they are too shy to ask from the instructor.
Those who are against comprehensive sexual programs might also be against a sex education magazine; however it is essential that students be taught not just about abstinence but contraception, condoms and also the consequences of not using protective measures. The more students know about how necessary it is to be careful, the better the government and the education systems would be in preventing teenage pregnancies, early initiation of sexual activity and even the spread of HIV.
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I believe a magazine is also essential to provide valid and reliable information as there is a lot of material on the internet which is not so reliable. In fact if students do not get the required information or detailed information from the school’s sex education programs they would actually use internet sources to gain access to information. This is not a bad thing as long as they access the educationally appropriate sites. However with the magazine available they would be provided links that are useful on the internet which provide appropriate information. Moreover the magazine would provide them a helpline where they can talk to professionals and experts in case they have queries or need help regarding some specific topics. Hence it can be said that sex education magazines in schools are not a bad idea especially with the commercialization of sex in the media and on the internet, this magazine would give a more realistic picture.