Teen birth rates may be rising - Let the "why?" debate rage on

In the Washington Post today, an article by Rob Stein called "Teen Birth Rate Rises in U.S., Reversing 14 Year Decline" ponders just why teen birth rates might be rising. The opinions couldn't be more different.

Is it that abstinence only messages have left our teens without the tools to protect themselves, or is it that condom promotion messages are encouraging increased sexual behavior?

Allegra Madsen, ISIS' new program manager, asked John Santelli, teen health expert at Columbia University, about his thoughts on the new data:

"Multiple social and policy factors are presumably influencing the recent rise in teen birth rates," offered Santelli. "One possibility is a decline in contraceptive use. The 2005 YRBS [Youth risk Behavior Surveillance] data suggests such a decline (a small decrease in condom use and a small increase in non use compared to 2003). One factor that may have contributed to a decline in contraceptive use would be the negative information on condom and contraceptive use that many abstinence only programs include."

Another thing is also clear. This debate is being played out among adults, health professionals, politicians, etc. But what do that teens want? What do they think they need?

The Fresh Focus Sex Ed Video Contest gives young adults (under 30) a chance to say what they want. We're asking film makers to imagine the future of sex ed, and what they think would work better. We're offering a $3500 first place prize, along with a chance to screen their videos at the Sex::Tech Conference in SF on January 22nd.

As I posted yesterday, Jennifer Garner isn't the only one who didn't get any formal sex education, check out the Fresh Focus submissions so far and judge for yourself.

Gov't attack on adult social networking freedoms!

The following is a partial repost from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

The federal government is proposing regulations that would effectively kill adult social-networking sites. This is being done under the guise of fighting child pornography. You have until September 10 to object to these regulations. It’s easy to do and essential. A sample e-mail comment is at the bottom of this page. Please forward this information to your friends!
What’s the Deal?

The Department of Justice is proposing regulations to implement a federal law designed to combat child pornography, known as Section 2257. The law was first enacted in 1998 and was amended in 2006 and significantly expanded to include regulation of the Internet.

While many of the regulations pertain to companies that produce adult entertainment magazines and videos (and are extremely burdensome), they would also affect anyone who uses an adult social-networking site. Here’s how:

* The regulations would require the people running a site to get and maintain personal information from every user (that means you) who posts a “sexually explicit” photo, including your photo ID (driver’s license, passport, or military ID).
* The regulations would allow the Attorney General to conduct warrantless searches at will on the sites’ records, including your personal information.
* There are few safeguards over what the FBI can do with the information it obtains.
* If a site operator fails to comply with the regulations, he or she would face a prison sentence of up to 5 years.
* For more detailed information on Sec. 2257, go to the task force fact sheet.

Obviously, none of this has anything to do with child pornography. Instead, it is a blatant attempt to end the ability of consenting adults to use adult social-networking sites to meet other people for sex. Obviously, if these regulations go into effect, they will kill this industry.
What You Can Do

The Department of Justice has published these proposed regulations and the public has until September 10 to comment on them.

We need to generate thousands of comments objecting to the proposed regulations – and it’s easy to do via e-mail. Just follow the instructions below...
____________________

A sample letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Justice is provided on the bottom of this link. The fact that the Justice Dept. can't handle increasing the prison population will hopefully save us from this grand save-the-children idea. Jeeez, what next? You can always join Playboy's new social networking site (college only) that surprisingly shows little skin.

STDtest.org will challenge STD & HIV testing norms

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently threw a wrench in their grantmaking process with the advent of the Changemakers supported open source competition titled: Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care: Solutions people want.

ISIS has entered a proposal to expand STDtest.org to include gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and herpes in addition to syphilis. STDtest.org will allow people to receive FREE STD and HIV testing by printing out a lap slip, going to a local test site and then retrieving results online. HIV results will be given over the phone. The service smashes barriers to sexual health care that many people experience...those who cannot afford basic tests or those who rather not speak to a doctor about their history will have access to the tests they need in order to know their STD and HIV status.

Please comment on the ISIS / STDtest.org proposal to keep the dialog going and attract attention to this crucial "disruption technology."

So far there are 150 amazing entries from 23 countries all aimed at transforming health care and health care delivery through technology. The entry period ends tomorrow (last chance to comment on the entries), followed by a four period week period where the finalists are narrowed down to 12. Then there will be a two week period ending Aug 29 with the announcement of the winners. $5,000 will be given to three winners, with the potential of 5 million dollars for the project(s) with the most potential impact.

Help make STDtest.org a winner!

Massmen vlogger shows some skin

Daniel, a Massmen blogger known for his chronicle of non-monogamy struggles and recovery from long distance hell, is taking a step by using video blogging for the first time. Meet Victor and hear a little about their trip to Montreal in this first episode:


Nico the Great, another blogger of ours, recently sero-converted. Lately he has been challenged by people with age assumptions and has been frustrated with guys' takes on online status disclosure.
Read: Age is deceiving? and Newbie HIV+ vs. Seasoned HIV+.

Press the space bar! Yes! No Stop!

Game makers, La Molleindustria, are making some interesting games. Well, one very interesting, and the others...well, I haven't decided. If Operation Pedopriest is a baby jesus buttplug, then Queer Power and Orgasm Stimulator are a couple of bachelorette party gifts.


Operation Pedopriest
Despite being hard on the eyes, this game makes it's point - secrecy is not going to solve anything. Based on the Vatican's "secret procedures" to catch "pedopriests," the maddening game playing experience serves only to frustrate and disgust the player. But make no mistake, this is a serious game, albeit with little wide-eyed children. Ian Bogost digs a little deeper...thanks Ian....I agree, although fascinating, this is pretty much a lose-lose.

Queer Power
Umm...this one might have kept my attention for a full twenty seconds if I had played the two player version. Basically, the intro text, "...enjoy a trip into the odd world," was a bit off putting, but switching whenever you want between bodies...now that's a nice touch. The idea is to sex up your partner (changing genders whenever you want) until one partner comes. The sound effects make it worth a try.

Orgasm Stimulator
Fake an orgasm and don't let your partner know they suck in bed. Pfft!!

The sound effects make this one not worth a try.

Update: Molleindustria has posted notice that they have removed Pedopriest after an order from the Italian Parliament cited a law stating that it is illegal to depict sex with children. New and interesting reviews are surfacing all the time.

Trojan too sloppy for conservative-owned TV

Thanks to Babeland and NSRC for keeping us in the loop on this one. The new Trojan condom ads are not being aired on CBS and FOX because they are "inappropriate" and focus on pregnancy prevention rather than STIs. As far as I can tell, the ad doesn't address STIs or pregnancy - just not wanting to sleep with "pigs."


Sign this Planned Parenthood petition asking CBS and FOX to reconsider their stodgy position. Then send it to friends.

Here's another one, just for fun.


Update: The pig ad does run on Myspace however, which is funny considering it is also owned by Rupert Murdoch and friends.

Television touches (briefly) sex in Second Life

I'm handing over some giant bravery points to Bonnie Ruberg of Bonnie's Heroine Sheik and Jean-Ann Mills from The Electric Sheep Company for standing their ground on the Morning Show with Mike and Juliette (a Fox News affiliate), who are really good at acting like virtual sex is the weirdest thing since jam on pizza.

The show touches on the issue of rape in virtual worlds as well as some details about virtual privates and doin' it.

Watch the Video

Linden Labs and Second Life - Scapegoated

Second Life, SL for short, is under fire once again for providing a platform for people's fantasies (thanks to PixelPulse, GamePolitics, Bonnie and Regina for info). Familles de France have sued the Linden Labs, and in response a statement was issued listing their intended self policing ideals.

So from now on (yeah right) there will be a new age verification system, and "real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life."

Statement goes on to say:

"Please help us to keep Second Life a safe and welcoming space by continuing to notify Linden Lab about locations in-world that are violating our Community Standards regarding broadly offensive and potentially illegal content. Our team monitors such notification 24-hours a day, seven-days a week. Individuals and groups promoting or providing such content and activities will be swiftly met with a variety of sanctions, including termination of accounts, closure of groups, removal of content, and loss of land. It’s up to all of us to make sure Second Life remains a safe and welcoming haven of creativity and social vision."

Is sexual expression not part of creativity and social vision? pfft.

There is definitely conduct/content that can offend and hurt other players in real life. SL is not utopian, but how can anyone expect it to be? It is built and expanded by players from around the world. So what should members of Familles de France do when they stumble upon a leather vested avatar enjoying the virtual whipping of a life time? Duck into a virtual church perhaps?

And I admit I'm not involved in Second Life, so I'm curious...consenting situations aside, can avatars escape unwanted touching and abuse on this game's platform or can your character become under the control of others? I know some games work this way and rapes and other assaults have happened. Does SL operate like that? You tell me.

Update: I found a great blog about virtual laws. Here is some excellent commentary on this sticky SL issue.

Safe Sex Fridays - Masturbate-a-thon

Time is running out to get in on the ninth annual Masturbate-a-thon May 26th, 2007 at the Porn Palace in San Francisco. Why you ask? The Center for Sex and Culture lays it out:

• Masturbation is the safest sex
• More masturbation means more sexual self-awareness
• Masturbation with a partner can be educational and hot
  

Be a masturbater or a spectator or just celebrate at home. Either way this event is guaranteed to be a great start to the holiday weekend.

Cory Silverberg had a chat with organizers Carol Queen and Robert Morgan Lawrence to see just what the last nine years have brought us. Also check out this list of the best masturbation scenes from mainstream movies.

Internet censorship around the globe

The Associated Press reports that at least 25 countries world wide block websites to residents. The types of sites researchers found most often blocked you ask?

"...China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.

In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance, tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North Korea.

Yet researchers found no filtering at all in Russia, Israel or the Palestinian territories despite political conflicts there.

Governments generally had no mechanism for citizens to complain about any erroneous blocking, with Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates being among the exceptions..."

It seem like the United States should be added here as well, with access to Youtube and Myspace recently cut off for military personnel, various levels of filtering depending on your work place, and country wide battles over internet access rights in public libraries.

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), working to protect digital rights, is a wonderful resource. Check out their legal guide for bloggers.

Interesting tidbit: 25% of UK work force is without internet at work. They get around it by using their mobile phones. Thanks Textually.org.

Myspace to remove registered sex offenders

The New York Times today published a story about Myspace's plans to rid the networking site of known sex offenders. Myspace says this will hinge on whether state officials subpoena the names...something the said officials don't think is necessary. It seems that there are two different goals here. Myspace wants to keep the so called predators off their site, and the attorneys general want to find folks and prosecute them. Perhaps that's why there has been a cooperation lapse between the two parties.

Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal says, “We have a valid and viable need to know about convicted sexual offenders who may pose a threat to children.” The problem however is that using Myspace doesn't necessarily mean using it in a threatening way. And how do you suppose that will be proven? By eroding the privacy of everyone using the site for its intended purpose?

Check out Myspace's safety tips or tips for parents. It does seem like a better approach to educate the majority of users about staying safe, rather than booting every register offender who may just be connecting with friends after time apart.

In related news: U.S. soldiers worldwide can no longer use Myspace or Youtube to keep in touch with their friends and families, although the Marine core is using the networking site for recruitment. Pftt!

ID the Creep / Bore yourself to sleep

I found ID the Creep at Watercoolergames, a great blog about games with more than an entertainment purpose. ID the Creep was produced by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

So the game starts: "You think you know who is E-mailing, chatting, or IM'ing with you? Really? Can you tell who means well and who doesn't? Play ID the Creep and see how you score when it comes to picking out the bad from the good....."

Then you get to be one of three young girl characters and 'play' some sample chats and IMs, and look at some email subject lines like this one from Robert Jones: "Can you help me download some music?" or this one from George Marxant: "Can you meet me at the food court? What R U wearing?"

Fast forward, if you made it through all three exercises congratulate yourself. If you're under 18 and you thought it was fun go buy yourself an ice cream.

The games purpose is fairly clear, but its method is flawed. There is no information for kids, or parents for that matter, about what the warning signs are. You're just supposed to guess at these cryptic little IM and chat messages. There is no reward for winning and no safety tips about what to avoid in real life.

Reminds me of another great idea without a point. I don't know the solution, but ID the Creep is a poor attempt.

Oh, and doesn't this picture of the "creep" look like a 10 year old with a grey streak and bags under his eyes?

New America Media surveys youth by cell phone

The results of a New America Media cell phone survey of 600 California residents ages 16-22 have been released, and are downloadable.

Here is the executive summary of the survey:
"One in eight of the nation's young people lives in California. Three-fifths are youth of color, and nearly half are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Taken together, this poll paints a portrait of a generation coming of age in a society of unprecedented racial and ethnic diversity – the first global society this country has seen.

"California's young people, as reflected in this poll, are strong believers in the American Dream, harbor deep concerns about family stability, cite marriage and parenthood as life goals, and are as apt to define their identity by music and fashion taste as by the color of their skin. Despite obstacles, they expect to create successful lives for themselves and imagine a more inclusive and tolerant society for one another. This collective optimism represents a unique source of social capital for California, and a mirror of what the U.S. is becoming as a global society."

The summary is really interesting and separates many questions by race and gender. For example, young men perceive themselves as healthier than young women do, and African American youth perceive themselves as healthier than White Anglo, Latino or Asian youth do.* Surprising to me was that youth did not identify gender as an important way they identify. Either that, or the researchers did not give gender as an option. I think it's the latter. Ooops, big oversight.

*These categories were defined by the researchers and self selected into by survey respondents.

Planned Parenthood Pill Patrol

A kick ass move by Planned Parenthood's Save Roe campaign. The Pill Patrol is a an action tool that anyone can use to expose pharmacies with bad emergency contraception policies.

First: Find a pharmacy in your area (or several) with a simiple zip code search.

Second: Put on you secret shopper hat and ask for emergency contraception (Plan B) at that pharmacy using your downloadable Toolkit guide.

Third: Report back what happened on the Pill Patrol site. Eh em, "when we verify that a pharmacy refuses to provide EC, we'll alert you immediately and ask for your help. We'll demand meetings with the offending pharmacy. We ill apply pressure through rallies, letter-writing campaigns, and advertisements in local newspapers. We will make sure that women everywhere have every chance to prevent unintended pregnancy. "

The site has a Toolkit that can be downloaded that has a sample dialog to help seek the information that will be important to others, including tactful ways to ask why a pharmacy MAY NOT be carrying Plan B.

You can sign up for alerts via text message or email or both. I signed up with my cell to see what their text strategy is all about.

Kink.com sponsors ASACP

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Wrap it up NYC - sweet sweet city condoms

Normally I wouldn't blog this because it's not exactly technology related (although at one moment in time condoms were new), except the website is super rad and the general idea even radder. I couldn't resist.

The simple animations of New Yorkers humping in high rises, and gabbing on the bridge are awesome, and the list of spots where you can pick up free condoms is a goldmine (for those online at least).

What city will hop on next?

Update: Nordstorm did the website design and branding.

Technology take up is natural for "digital natives"

I was reading the NTEN blog and found a great little article about reaching low income people with technology which features Joyce Raby from Legal Services Corporation, and some words from Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet and American Life Project , a non-profit research center studying the effect of the internet on American's. Anyway, particularly interesting for public health is Rainie's idea of "digital natives," or kids born after 1985 who have basically grown up with the Internet, and who are excellent targets for technology based messaging.

With our SEXINFO project (sexual health resource guide via text message), 90+ % of youth who remembered seeing the ad campaign for the text messaging service had their own phone. This was really surprising to us because all of these youth were from one of the lowest income neighborhoods in San Francisco.

The latest report from pew is a demogrpahic report about latinos with less english proficiency remaining a disporportionatly low percentage of total Internet users in the U.S. So, while the digital divide doesn't extend to youth in a general sense, non-english speakers (including youth), still don't have adequate access to Internet resources, even if they have access to computers.

InSPOT, our online STD/HIV partner notification system will soon be translated into Spanish. Perhaps translating SEXINFO as well will extend its benefit even farther.

Is it True.com that you are a Married/Felon?

Check this NYtimes article if you can. Straight dating service, True.com thinks it's pretty special. Their politics don't really matter because people can use whatever damn site they want to hookup, however, they're pretty popular (rivalling match.com and yahoo personals), they're using sticky marketing tricks to make a lot of money, and they say that they contribute to online dating safety when they actually don't (because anyone can fake it).

My criticisms are brief. True brags that they "prosecute felons and marrieds." First of all, even if you are "separated" or have a pending divorce, forget about finding any True hotties. Second, what if you have negotiated with your husband/wife/registered spouse that it's okay to get in other people's beds, even the beds of other marrieds? Answer: find another dating pool (which will be cheaper than the 50 bucks a months True charges).

Okay, the felon part is really disturbing. I can understand some of the rationale behind corporate types wanting to cover their asses by booting folks from their site with sexual offenses, but what if you are a robber, a frauder, a runnaway? You need love too. But, as it stands, True doesn't care: "We can't guarentee that criminals won't get on our site, but we can quarentee that they'll be sorry they did."

I can see it now:
Felon: I was just trying to get a date, get some love and rejoin society. I've been in jail so long.
True/cop/law: You have endangered everyone on the internet. You must be punished.

Wouldn't it make more sense to work on protecting online daters from things they're more likely to be dealing with, like STDs, heartbreak and empty wallets?

Kink.com NEWS

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Kink.com is good for the neighborhod!

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