(II) What topics interest people in the sex education community and where do they get information?

A dominant conversation topic among members of the sex education community is the content of sex education programs and their effectiveness. In general, the debate focuses on whether an abstinence-only or comprehensive approach is more effective. An April 2007 federally-funded report by Mathematica Policy Research found that abstinence-only programs are ineffective in increasing rates of sexual abstinence. This finding intensified the debate, especially considering the Bush administration’s political and financial support of abstinence-only programs.
Even in the overall media landscape, discussion about sex education tends to be “narrow” and limited to abstinence-only versus comprehensive, according to Katie Guilfoyle, a health education administrator at Northwestern University. “It never really gets into a wider debate about the politics behind each side, why this is a political debate.”
This focus on abstinence-only versus comprehensive was also reflected in my informal online survey of 29 people, in which the large majority (83 percent) of responses said the content of programs is the most important or interesting issue in sex education. Teen pregnancy is another topic that respondents were very interested in.
Information about sex education is fairly abundant online. The Internet seems to rule as the primary source of information about sex education, particularly because sex education is a fairly specific topic and thus does not have as much traditional media entirely devoted to it. Advocacy organizations with an online presence include:

• Advocates for Youth, which includes extensive online resource libraries and blogs by staff members and activists
• Abstinence Clearinghouse, which has news resource materials as well as its own blog
• National Abstinence Education Association
• Planned Parenthood, which also maintains a sexual health and advice Web site targeted to teens

Online Web sites and discussion boards tend to be dominated by question-and-answer posts to get information about sexual health questions or issues, rather than as much discussion about sex education policy itself. The abundance of Q&A sites can also make it difficult at times to know which Web sites are reputable and, in general, the credibility of sites is still a concern.

“There needs to be more of an arena where people can ask questions and get really good answers from doctors or from nurses, people they know they can trust on a reputable web site, rather than randomly asking people,” said Emily Raymond, a coordinator of the sexual health event, Sex Week, at Northwestern University. “I think it’s important to have really trusted resources on the Internet because that’s where so many people turn to for information.”

Q&A Web sites such as Scarlett Teen, which has a very active discussion board, and Columbia University’s Health Service department’s Go Ask Alice were often named as good Q&A sites.
In terms of Web sites devoted more to policy and research, several interviewees named the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) as a trusted source. SIECUS is also frequently cited in traditional news articles.
Most blogs that deal with sex education focus on the larger context of sexual health advice, sexuality or reproductive rights. Blogs devoted to these areas include RH Reality Check and Sex in the Public Square.

Emily Douglas, assistant editor of RH Reality Check, said she believes traffic on Web sites that focus on sexual health advice tends to be higher. Policy issues tend to be more interesting to people professionally involved in reproductive health issues, while there seems to be a greater potential audience for sexual health advice. Douglas said RH Reality Check has considered increasing the advice component of its Web site because of this.
“There’s such a deluge of questions from youths,” Douglas said. She said online Web sites like Scarlett Teen have helped to fulfill this void, but that communication about sexual health advice would probably be even better in person.
But the downside is that these Q&A Web sites may not give enough attention to policy. Ross Wantland is a coordinator of sexual assault education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a blogger who writes about sexuality. Wantland said that, in his experience, Web sites that deal with sexual health advice tend to try to avoid political issues, including policy issues, which he feels are not really separable from the larger sex education dialogue.
Although Q&A sites don’t focus as much on policy, there are several think tanks that are active online. The Guttmacher Institute offers an online newsletter. The Henry Kaiser Family Foundation features daily reports, while the Heritage Foundation features breaking news. The Kinsey Institute deals less with breaking news, but has extensive scholarly research and publications.
Mailing lists and listservs are also useful resources, particularly for keeping up-to-date on legislation that may be more complicated or take more frequent individual research or monitoring to follow.
Kim Rice, a sexual health educator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said she subscribes to listservs for health education information. Rice not only gets information from the listservs, but also uses them as vehicles to communicate with others by e-mailing interesting items to colleagues or others on campus. The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) is one example of an organization utilizing listservs.

Aside from the Internet, many people are still getting information from friends. In my informal online survey of 29 people, respondents chose friends as the top method of obtaining information about sex education. In a close second, 63 percent of responses cited online, including Web sites and blogs, as the top source.
Other resources include scholarly journals such as the American Journal of Sexuality Education and Sex Education.

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