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If ur yng and wnt the 411 on sex; just txt ;-)
Topic Started: May 8 2006, 12:25 PM (397 Views)
Optimistic
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HOLY CARP!!!
Text messages give '411' on teen sex
By Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060508/...ive411onteensex

FYI: if ur yng and wnt the 411 on sex, just txt ;-).

San Francisco just launched the nation's first text-messaging program aimed to shoot instant cellphone messages to sexually active young people seeking advice about sex and health. The service focuses on everything from what to do "if ur condom broke" to whom to call "if ur feeling down ... like u wanna xcape ur life."

Written in the abbreviated style of text messaging, SexInfo is open to anyone with cellphone text messaging. But it is aimed at sexually active 12- to 24-year-olds in San Francisco, especially blacks, whose rates of sexually transmitted diseases have increased in the past year, says Jacqueline McCright of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Kids, McCright says, "often do not get accurate information from their friends, and many times their parents don't discuss sexual issues with them. This is a way that they can get quick, easy information confidentially."

The service, based on a London program that launched in 2004, provides instant, automated responses to specific questions about pregnancy, HIV, sex and depression. Kids send a text message to 36617 (Metro PCS users use a different number) with the word "SexInfo." They are then sent a list of codes from which to choose.

"I think kids will use it," says Alexis McBride, 16, a junior at John O'Connell High School in San Francisco, who says she sends "about 100" text messages a day. "Kids text a lot," she adds.

Organizers expect other cities to pick up on the program and are hoping it develops into a national service where live operators answer text messages in real time.

"We launched San Francisco as a small pilot to show what the possibilities are," says Deb Levine, executive director of Internet Sexuality Information Services (ISIS), the non-profit organization hired to run SexInfo. "It's very clear that public health advocates are watching San Francisco to see what we're doing - I have gotten e-mails from colleagues across the country."

The city health department paid ISIS $40,000 to develop SexInfo and will spend $20,000 to market it and about $2,500 a month to maintain it. Messages direct youths to San Francisco health services.

Jennifer Hartstein, psychologist with Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., worries that text responses lack detail and will help teens avoid parental involvement, giving them one more way that they can keep secrets from parents. Still, she calls the service "a wonderful and innovative response" to the problem of sexually transmitted diseases among teens.
PHOTOS

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.
- Mark Twain


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-T. S. Eliot
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sue
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Seems like a good idea to me. Education is the key; why not embrace the technology your target group is comfortable with?
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
I absolutely agree. I think it's a fantastic idea. Though there is tonnes of information out there on the internet (the other technology that kids tend to use) the text messaging is nice because kids can do it so privately. No worries about parents or teachers checking out search histories and such.
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

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M&M's
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Fulla-Carp
Why don't we just throw our kids out to the wolves. Why have children if your going to let everyone else educate them.
My child shows GOOD CHARACTERIZATION in an ongoing game of D&D
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
M&M's
May 8 2006, 06:53 PM
Why don't we just throw our kids out to the wolves. Why have children if your going to let everyone else educate them.

Well, in defense of alternate education, not everyone is lucky enough to have good and responsible parents to teach them good values. And, the more the merrier when it comes to sex education.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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Optimistic
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HOLY CARP!!!
It does sound like it's promoting a cheap and lazy way to learn about such serious issues, but honestly. . . if we leave it up to these kids to educate themselves, how likely is it that they will do so? If this will be their only source of info, well then, better than nothing I suppose. Pretty sad, though.
PHOTOS

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.
- Mark Twain


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-T. S. Eliot
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M&M's
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Fulla-Carp
I don't believe supplying facts is education.
My child shows GOOD CHARACTERIZATION in an ongoing game of D&D
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Well neither do I, necessarily, and certainly this shouldn't be used as a primary tool, but I just don't see how it can possibly hurt.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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JBryan
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I am the grey one
Probably the most asked question is, "How can I get laid".

They just might have an answer for that too.
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
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Optimistic
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Aqua Letifer
May 8 2006, 11:32 PM
but I just don't see how it can possibly hurt.


(from the article)
Quote:
 
Jennifer Hartstein, psychologist with Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., worries that text responses lack detail and will help teens avoid parental involvement, giving them one more way that they can keep secrets from parents.


Maybe a valid concern. Though I would think that many of the kids that go to a text messaging service for sex information are not the ones that are going to get much parental involvement in the matter.
PHOTOS

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.
- Mark Twain


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-T. S. Eliot
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sue
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HOLY CARP!!!
M&M's
May 8 2006, 07:53 PM
Why don't we just throw our kids out to the wolves. Why have children if your going to let everyone else educate them.

What, you don't think anyone else but a parent should have a part in your child's education? That seems a bit narrow. There are lots of different, interesting people out there in the big world.

As for the sex education, of course, in an ideal world, a child would learn from his parents, and be able to come to them with questions, and get good information. In the real world though, a lot of kids do not have that. Far better that they should get information in any way, than to be ignorant about things like birth control, stds, etc.
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Axtremus
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sue
May 9 2006, 01:12 AM
M&M's
May 8 2006, 07:53 PM
Why don't we just throw our kids out to the wolves. Why have children if your going to let everyone else educate them.

What, you don't think anyone else but a parent should have a part in your child's education? That seems a bit narrow. There are lots of different, interesting people out there in the big world.

As for the sex education, of course, in an ideal world, a child would learn from his parents, and be able to come to them with questions, and get good information. In the real world though, a lot of kids do not have that. Far better that they should get information in any way, than to be ignorant about things like birth control, stds, etc.

Interesting... I'd like to explore this a bit more.
See http://s10.invisionfree.com/The_New_Coffee...showtopic=10604
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M&M's
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Fulla-Carp
sue
May 8 2006, 09:12 PM
M&M's
May 8 2006, 07:53 PM
Why don't we just throw our kids out to the wolves. Why have children if your going to let everyone else educate them.

What, you don't think anyone else but a parent should have a part in your child's education? That seems a bit narrow. There are lots of different, interesting people out there in the big world.

As for the sex education, of course, in an ideal world, a child would learn from his parents, and be able to come to them with questions, and get good information. In the real world though, a lot of kids do not have that. Far better that they should get information in any way, than to be ignorant about things like birth control, stds, etc.

No, I don't think that a child's parents should be there only means for education, my son goes to daycare and learns from other people. But all things taught to my child, I want to know about.
My child shows GOOD CHARACTERIZATION in an ongoing game of D&D
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sue
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M&M's
May 9 2006, 10:44 AM
No, I don't think that a child's parents should be there only means for education, my son goes to daycare and learns from other people. But all things taught to my child, I want to know about.

Well, that's great. And you'll have lots of fun, learning things with him you didn't know. It's one of the real joys of parenting, imo.

The concern is for older kids, teenswho are not coming from environments like yours.....don't you think it's crucial that information about sex is available for all? And if some kids have parents who won't talk about it, or go to schools were it's not in the curriculum, or have a real problem/concern, that they have somewhere to go for help? I just don't see that as throwing kids to the wolves. Preventing teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases is not a bad thing. The more information, the better.
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Christopher T
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Junior Carp
M&M's
May 9 2006, 01:44 PM
No, I don't think that a child's parents should be there only means for education, my son goes to daycare and learns from other people. But all things taught to my child, I want to know about.

***DISCLAIMER: I'm teasing***

I hope your children learn the difference between there, their, and they're because you should have stated, "No, I don't think that a child's parents should be their only means for education..."
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