Human sexual behavior

Marion Stevens, treatment monitor with the Health Systems Trust, reflects on adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare during Youth Month.

With June being Youth Month, it's important to consider and reflect on the area of adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare. This is an area that is often ignored as we grapple with the reality that adolescents are choosing tobe sexually active, but cultural practices often limit open communication about sex with our cllildren. As nurses we have a responsibility to provide care of adolescents' sexual health, which also includes the results of unplanned pregnancies,abortion, spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and maternal mortality and morbidity.

A presentation made at the March 2005 Understanding Human Sexuality Seminar.

It is undeniable that Christian churches have made a big contribution towards shaping attitudes around sexuality.

An information campaign hopes to empower communities in Ekurhuleni to be aware of responsible sexual practices.

One out of every three children is having sex at the age of 10, and 17 out of 100 will deliberately spread the virus if they know they are HIV-positive.

The prevalence of sexual violence, particularly among children, has led an NGO in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province to focus on informing children about their rights and what to do in case of abuse.

Pretoria - Any person infected with a life-threatening sexually-transmissible disease who failed to disclose that to his or her partner before having sex will be guilty of rape, the South African Law Commission (SALC) said on Tuesday. At a news conference in Pretoria the commission released a report containing its final recommendations on the law relating to sexual offences, as well as a draft Bill on Sexual Offences. In its draft Children's Bill, also released on Tuesday, the SALC recommended that children of all ages be provided with confidential access to condoms. According to the draft bill on sexual offences, prostitution by children or mentally impaired people should be decriminalised in certain circumstances. These included where children benefited from child prostitution, like siblings in a child-headed household. However, the draft legislation called for the explicit criminalisation and severe penalties of all role-players involved in the prostitution of children and mentally impaired people. All offences under the proposed legislation should also be made applicable to South Africans travelling abroad, the SALC said. Medical care In another far-reaching recommendation, the commission said the state should provide appropriate medical care, treatment and counselling for people who had sustained physical, psychological or other injuries due to an alleged sexual offence. The SALC proposed the abolition of the cautionary rule whereby evidence by complainants in sexual offence cases and children should or could be treated with caution. It mooted the creation of a category of vulnerable witnesses - including all complainants and child witnesses in sexual offence cases. That status would entail new protective measures, including the appointment of a support person to assist the witness during pre-trial procedures and the trial. The draft bill also provided for increased penalties for those who identified complainants and witnesses in sexual offences cases or who unlawfully published information in this regard.(Source: News24.com, 21/01/2003)

What is the best way to stop sexual abuse of children by adults? What suggestions do children have for tackling this problem? Tearfund investigated sexual behaviour in young people in Sri Lanka and gathered their views on strategies to prevent sexual abuse. The study involved 145 school children aged 13 to 17 years in Moratuwa district. It aimed to discover: prevalence of perceived and actual sexual behaviour among young people children's perceptions and understanding of how to prevent sexual exploitation of children and how to help victims of abuse their knowledge about sex and their experience of sex education. The study found that: The children have creative ideas on intervention to prevent or stop sexual abuse of children, including: encouraging adults to address the root causes of negligence of children and educating them on child protection teaching children about the importance of speaking out offering peer support for abused children improving parent-child relationships providing study and employment to remove children from risky situations informing children about the health risks of sexual activity punishing adult perpetrators. The authors recommend that policy-makers tackling the problems of child sexual abuse should: develop sex education strategies that include a wide range of related topics and leave behind the 'traditional' human biology lesson inform parents and teachers of the importance of their explanation of sex make adults aware of their responsibilities in protection, moral education, and support of children encourage religious leaders to support good parenting train school teachers in appropriate sex education, child protection and counselling of children at risk insist that police see children as victims and take these abuses seriously by punishing the offenders allow children to contribute to finding a solution to these problems. Source(s): Children don't do sex with adults for pleasure: Sri Lankan children's views on sex and sexual exploitation', Child Abuse and Neglect 24 (7): 995-1003, by G. Miles, 2000 Full article:http://www.id21.org/health/h9gm1g1.html

Soliciting sex on the Internet is associated with a higher risk of STDs.