Sexual education is entering the mobile age. In Singapore, famous "Dr Love" offer answers to sex-related questions to the predominatly Muslim population via mobile phone. Half-way around the world, SexInfo doles out sexual health info to teens in 160 characters on the Unites States West Coast, and similar services operate in London and in Australia.
In Singapore, according to the Age:
Indonesians are invited to send a text message with any sex-related question to a panel of volunteer local doctors who will either send them a message back or use their question to help compile information on a website.
The brains behind the idea, Wei Siang Yu, who is nicknamed "Dr. Love" for his flamboyant methods of teaching Singaporeans about sex, told a press briefing his scheme would turn conventional sex education on its head.
"In over one month I think we will get a lot of SMS questions and these SMS questions will be answered and compiled into a pool of questions and answers," he said.
These are to be used to create an artificially intelligent "avatar" or virtual character which will later guide people online to the information they want.
Meanwhile, we have repeatedly sung Isis praises, an NGO in San Francisco, USA, that set up SexInfo, a sexual health info line for teens, in conjunction with the Public Health Department. For example, if the condom breaks, teens can turn to their cell phone for help: "if u hve sex, u can get an STD + not know it. Chlamydia, gonorrhea=no symptoms most of the time Dropin get chcked FREE," reads a text message tip, followed by a health clinic number and hours. Send the message "sexinfo" to (917) 957-4280 on MetroPCS phones or 36617 on all other cell phones to try it. SexInfo is the only mobile sexual health service available in the United States so far.
Meanwhile, a similar service is offered in Australia where sextxt offers contraceptive and sexual health advice to teens. Started by one of Australia's largest health care organizations, users text sexinfo to 19sextxt and receive a reply with seven options for automated assistance on sexual health issues. Advice on "emrgncy contrcptn" for example, will read "U cn gt mrng aftr pill at chmist U dnt need scrpt or 2 c a dctr Wrx up to 3 dys aftr u hv sx. Lngr u wait _ less likly 2 wrk". Users then get directed to a website or telephone number. A hindrance to all SMS in the US and Australia info is the cost: At 55 cents per SMS message in Australia and 35 cents in the US for each text message, these services may not be options for all teenagers.
Youthnet.org in the UK operates Brook, an online sexual health resource for teens that added last year a text messaging sex information service. Similar to the other services, users can text a keyword to a short code to receive a menu of options. Very usefully, users can also text in a keyword and their postal code to 81222 to receive detailed information about health services in their geographic area, though apparently only during regular business hours. Unlike sms services in the US and Australia, SMS in the UK is free to the user and this more accessible for teenagers.
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