The Multiple Meanings of “Safer Sex”

Abstract

Much has been written about the sexual recklessness of adolescents, and about how difficult it is to achieve stable, long-term changes in the sexual risk behaviors of a large number of the young people who reject abstinence. This article explains the meanings of “safer sex” that are obscure to most adolescents. One of the reasons most adolescents do not consistently protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections is because they have not developed an appreciation of the multiple and difficult challenges associated with the seemingly simple advice to have only safer sex if they choose to be sexually active. It is the job of educators to help them see what lies beneath the superficial definition of safer sex, and to help prepare them for overcoming the various obstacles to long-term sexually transmitted infection risk reduction.