Teens know sex via SMS

2002-10-09 09:07

Singapore - A Singaporean doctor known for his wireless ovulation alert service for women has launched a new 10-day sex education campaign offering free advice for teenagers via mobile phone text messaging.

During the "Sex in the Air" campaign, teens can send text questions through their mobile phones, and doctors from Singapore,Amsterdam and Melbourne, Australia will respond within two days,organizer Dr. Wei Siang Yu said at the launch this week.

Text messaging - a little-used feature of mobile phones in some countries like the United States - is hugely popular in Singapore, which boasts the most mobile phone users per capita in the world.

In May, Wei launched Megg Alert, a service that sends text messages to subscribers on a certain date each month, reminding them that they may be ovulating or premenstrual.

Wei said he hopes Singapore teens will use the new text messaging service to ask questions about sensitive or embarrassing topics such as safe sex, AIDS, pregnancy and masturbation.

Pornography and homosexual acts are illegal in this conservative Southeast Asian city-state, and steamy scenes are frequently edited out of imported TV shows and films.

However, according to Singapore nongovernment group Action for AIDS, the AIDS-causing virus HIV is just as prevalent in Singapore - a wealthy, highly modernized country of 4 million - as in other developed nations, with more than 1 500 known HIV-infected Singaporeans at the end of last year.

"It's difficult for children to ask parents about sex," said Dr. Peter Lim, a urologist and a member of the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association, one of three private organizations supporting "Sex in the Air." "The campaign provides answers by sex and fertility doctors while allowing teenagers to remain anonymous."

The other groups supporting the campaign are Action for AIDS and Singapore Youth Challenge. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA