Sexuality Education Goes Viral: What We Know About Online Sexual Health Information

Abstract

Internet use among young people in the United States is nearly ubiquitous; they are online from home computers, from school computers, and from mobile devices. This offers incredible opportunity for sexual health educators to access individuals who are at a critical time in sexual development over the life course. Currently, the research base on how to best educate young people about sexual health via the Internet is thin. This literature review adds to the small body of current research by describing three subject areas: how young people are using the Internet to find sexual health information, what topics they want to know about, and evaluations of Internet-based sexual health interventions. Based on current knowledge, the field needs to create consensus about what works by developing shared recommendations and theoretical foundations on which to build sexuality education resources online. Additionally, young people need to be consulted in a more systematic way about the information they want and how they want it offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality education
• adolescents
• Internet
• health promotion
• sexual health
• information seeking
• health education
• web-based