Does education about AIDS make young people more sexually active?
It is commonly supposed that talking to young people about sex will make them do it. Such anxieties prevent many teachers, youth workers and parents from talking about sexual matters. Alternatively, they may encourage an over-emphasis on the negative aspects of sex – unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS – rather than positive aspects such as intimacy, sexual love and pleasure. Likewise when drugs are talked about the emphasis is often on the damage they can cause. This kind of unbalanced approach is often seen through by young people. In consequence, they may reject all that adults have to say, seeking guidance and role models from peers and from the media. Contrary to what might popularly be believed, research looking at the effects of sex education on young people’s sexual behaviour offers little evidence that it hastens the onset of sexual experience, or increases sexual risk among those who are already sexually active. Indeed, several studies from different count
