Thai Public Health Ministry: Premature sex linked to porn sites, 'Line' chat

[webfact]

Premature sex linked to porn sites, Line chat
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Easy access to pornography via the Internet and the Line chat application could be drawing impressionable youngsters into premature sex, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.

"It can be dangerous if teenagers don't get proper advice," permanent secretary Narong Sahametapat said.

Since 2006, sexually transmitted infections have apparently been on the rise.

The 15-24 age bracket has some 40,000 people living with the human immunodeficiency virus in the country. Across all age groups, HIV patients number 376,690.

Authorities are offering free blood checks for people with high-risk behaviour. They can avail of the service twice a year to test whether they have the Aids virus.


-- The Nation 2014-02-13

[chooka]

is premature sex before or after puberty? Animals don't have sex before they have reached sexual maturity and humans are just another animal.

[JoeThePoster]

Examples of such sites, or it doesn't happen.

[englishoak]

Yeesh all this bs.... family planning and sex education at school with birth control and other safe sex options ... blaming everything else isnt productive or preventing anything.

[rkidlad]

"It can be dangerous if teenagers don't get proper advice," permanent secretary Narong Sahametapat said"

You said it., Narong.

[diehard60]

Well for sure they wont get the education they need from their families. The education system wont help much either.

[tomyummer]

Teens should go to Cowboy, Nana, Patpong, or massage parlors on Ratchada for advice on sex instead of porn sites. You've got the real thing in your own neighborhood and properly endorsed by the government. Who needs the Internet?

[Yunla]

Easy access to pornography via the Internet and the Line chat application could be drawing impressionable youngsters into premature sex, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.

I've been using the internet since the dial-up house-sized lolmodems of the 1980s and I have never visited a porn site even once. I submit my 30 years of porn-free internet-use as a behemoth sized challenge to the claims of the OP.

[WitawatWatawit]

Easy access to pornography via the Internet and the Line chat application could be drawing impressionable youngsters into premature sex, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.

I've been using the internet since the dial-up house-sized lolmodems of the 1980s and I have never visited a porn site even once. I submit my 30 years of porn-free internet-use as a behemoth sized challenge to the claims of the OP.

You're being silly. The article is not about Franciscan monks like you.

Hmmm ... 30 years, huh? You need to throw off the shackles and live a little before it's too late. :)

[Langsuan Man]

Where do they get these experts from ? Thailand, the hub of misinformation

Having basic sex education in the schools has been to solution in the rest of the world but no Thailand has found an alternative bogey man

[Yunla]

You're being silly. The article is not about Franciscan monks like you.

Hmmm ... 30 years, huh? You need to throw off the shackles and live a little before it's too late.

Anglican Nun, not Franciscan Monk.

I live a very full and joyous life, thankyou very much, lol. I just don't see how looking at naked people on my computer would enrich my life in any way whatsoever. There are far higher levels of bliss and joy available out there, the problem is people seem to automatically go for the meat dishes rather than the soul dishes.

In any case I don't see how having the internet means you look at porn, or even if you were looking at porn how it would lead to pregnancy / STD's etc. They are all separate things, and the latter issue is related to lack of education and the lack of intelligent marketing of contraception.

[harrry]

Once, through the efforts of Meechi, Thailand led the way in sex education and the promotion of condom use. Sadly the last couple of years this has declined and been replaced by things like the cultural minister's obsession regarding covering up the breasts of temple paintings and blaming everything on something other than the real causes....people of both sexes are "horny" and will use what is available. SOmetimes they even use both together.

[DrTuner]

Easy access to pornography via the Internet and the Line chat application could be drawing impressionable youngsters into premature sex, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.

I've been using the internet since the dial-up house-sized lolmodems of the 1980s and I have never visited a porn site even once. I submit my 30 years of porn-free internet-use as a behemoth sized challenge to the claims of the OP.

Quite an achievement. Given that surfing around internet will display you ads to dating sites and other dodgy portals leading the more hardcore stuff, you've managed to miss one of the largest parts of internet.

Took me about 5 mins with the mosaic browser in the 90's to find a page with images downloaded from the usenet news groups. Didn't lead me to having sex, though, unfortunately.

Just lock them pesky youngsters in a dungeon, that'll do it.

[rogerdee123]

Teens should go to Cowboy, Nana, Patpong, or massage parlors on Ratchada for advice on sex instead of porn sites. You've got the real thing in your own neighborhood and properly endorsed by the government. Who needs the Internet?

Of course you are correct ... the fact is Thailand has a huge commercial sex industry. Thailand is known for this world-wide. It's illegal of course as well as a source of corruption and income for many people .... so the Thai Govt and authorities don't speak of it and make these idiotic statements as if the commercial sex industry doesn't exist.

Anyone with half a brain knows that the commercial sex business here plays a much greater role (like 99%) in the STD and HIV rates and premature sex than internet porn and LINE or SMS messages.

[Yunla]

Quite an achievement. Given that surfing around internet will display you ads to dating sites and other dodgy portals leading the more hardcore stuff, you've managed to miss one of the largest parts of internet.

Took me about 5 mins with the mosaic browser in the 90's to find a page with images downloaded from the usenet news groups. Didn't lead me to having sex, though, unfortunately.

Just lock them pesky youngsters in a dungeon, that'll do it.

Its not really an achievement if you are only using the web for mainstream News sites, Educational Material sites, and Sociology Bulletin-boards etc. I try to only fly my PC through regulated airspace lol. But I see your point, a lot of sites do have shady links and portals.

Re; the youngsters, their desires are totally natural and healthy, it isn't an issue at all and neither (imho) is them looking at nuddy pictures/videos at the appropriate age. If that is what they want to do. My point is more that a lot of people find this stuff deeply tedious, it is boring. I find reading about history and science facts far more 'exhilarating' personally. I like looking at photos taken by the Hubble Telescope, far more than I would like to look at humans' bedtime antics.

[animatic]

Kids were having sex and STDs were transmitted long before the internet showed them positions to do it in.

Sure there's a link, but there are links in every village in the whole country, the sisters/cousins/aunties on the game.

The 16 year olds of both sexes already know most of it, if not the safety issues.

The Thai government used to get world class marks 20 years ago for education to counter STDs and pregnancies,

but have since let puritanical attitudes, the 'Thai exceptionalness' and general complacency,

stop the majority of working sex ed programs.

Blathering to reporters about going to the Wat on Valentines day,

will not stop more than a handful of sex acts this weekend.

And that was the ones not likely to happen anyway.

10's of thousands will still dip the wick.

[harrry]

Blathering to reporters about going to the Wat on Valentines day,

will not stop more than a handful of sex acts this weekend.

And that was the ones not likely to happen anyway.

10's of thousands will still dip the wick.

And tens of thousand more will try to and still go home disapoined..

[DrTuner]

My point is more that a lot of people find this stuff deeply tedious, it is boring. I find reading about history and science facts far more 'exhilarating' personally. I like looking at photos taken by the Hubble Telescope, far more than I would like to look at humans' bedtime antics.

Well, it is quite repetitive. My interest is the commercial side of it, good ol' porn has always been on the bleeding edge of emerging techs, if not the driving factor.

This particular branch of performing arts itself had it's heyday in the 70's, I think, no real innovations since. I bet they talked back then about the corruption it causes the oh so innocent teens as well. It was probably a couple of turtles mating in the stone ages, that brought out the exact same knee jerk reactions at the dawn of the mankind.

The uni miniskirt battle is brewing in the horizon already, innit ? Must be the time of the year again.

[Bluespunk]

Why is Line singled out? Wasn't that the app Tarit was trying to bully the operators into giving him access to people's conversations last year?

[Johnnie99]

Another case of blame anything except yourself.

Blame Line, websites ... not parental responsibility, guidance or advice.

[DrTuner]

Why is Line singled out? Wasn't that the app Tarit was trying to bully the operators into giving him access to people's conversations last year?

It's probably the app he uses to communicate with the mia nois, the only one he knows.

[12DrinkMore]

Easy access to pornography via the Internet and the Line chat application could be drawing impressionable youngsters into premature sex, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.

I've been using the internet since the dial-up house-sized lolmodems of the 1980s and I have never visited a porn site even once. I submit my 30 years of porn-free internet-use as a behemoth sized challenge to the claims of the OP.

Quite an achievement. Given that surfing around internet will display you ads to dating sites and other dodgy portals leading the more hardcore stuff, you've managed to miss one of the largest parts of internet.

Took me about 5 mins with the mosaic browser in the 90's to find a page with images downloaded from the usenet news groups. Didn't lead me to having sex, though, unfortunately.

Just lock them pesky youngsters in a dungeon, that'll do it.

As long as they are in separate cells, otherwise we'll have an even bigger problem.

[tingtongteesood]

Such a total load of crap ! Poor education is the biggest cause by far.

[thailampang2012]

Interesting coincidence...Just Yesterday I posted this commenting about teen pregnancy here.

This topic may be the right place to talk about my experience. I am married here and not with young children, but I know that many foreigners are around its own young kids, or from his spouses former marriage.

My wife have only married siblings, but her sisters have kids from 8 to 14 years old. The family is religious and fairly conservative. We meet them very often over the month, and I like very much by around the kids. All them are taking and using their ipods and tablets everywhere and in very occasion, something that bothers me, but is very common now. Even at the temples.

A while ago the sister with a 14 years old son commented that her son was unable to use his notebook because some technical problems.

I know some about computers and his mother asked for me to take a look, and also noticed that her son was not very happy with the idea. His mother insisted.

The computer was running too slow and I got their permission to take it to our home. If I cannot fix it, I know somebody very good in that.

By past experience, I know that kids like to load a lot of music, videos, pictures, and heavy games programs, without doing the proper cleaning. In some cases it is necessary to reformat the machine or change Windows. That's all.

I use a program from Google called Picasa to manage those kind of files. Picasa copy EVERY graphic file on the machine on a single file. Sometimes computers archive graphics even from online advertisement and books. With Picasa it is easy to deleted. This notebook didn't had that program.

When I installed Picasa, by my surprise, took a very long time to copy all those files. Finally, I got all together to manage it.

Well....The notebook was loaded with hundred of pornographic pictures and movies. I didn't count, at least 300....and... I have to admit..I looked in some...and was shocked by the content...I noticed that the movies and pictures were loaded from asiantuber.

Was hard to believe for me that kind of material is available for FREE, and to ANYBODY. I am talking about very heavy stuff I cannot comment here, but I know that in the US is a crime just to watch. Most of the material was from Asian countries porno web sites, including Thailand's.

I told my wife about, and she decided to tell her sister, and to get her authorization to delete everything of that nature from the notebook. After that operation, cleaning, desfragmenting, etc,etc, the machine was working well again.

I do not know what happened later.....No comments from the family or my wife....but the kid is not so friendly with me anymore....and I do not know if he was sharing his "collection" with his younger sisters.or friends....All them still using their Ipods.......

I hope somebody is talking with them about all that, and give some guidance, because rape, perversion, torture,sodomy, incest, child abuse, etc, etc, etc...do not have nothing to do with a healthy sex education..

[belg]

thainess: tell the kids nothing about sex ...

because it might encourage them to do it ...

so is it the same with sigarettes, booze & drugs ?

dont tell the kids to study, they might be able to find out that the whole thai education system is a big fail

[thailampang2012]

"It can be dangerous if teenagers don't get proper advice," permanent secretary Narong Sahametapat said"

You said it., Narong.

Unfortunately....teenagers are not good in following advice, specially from parents, and I agree totally than the Internet is helping them to get "advice" from very bad sources....Porno web sites in one of those. ....How parents can ask kids not to talk with strangers?...when the Internet is exactly promoting that...and how you can control the intentions of online people?.....I share your opinion and concern Mr. Narong....and I hope parents with young kids will do too, and look in that problem before too late.

[fleeing]

When it comes to HIV in Thailand one of the biggest barriers to dealing with it is that wonderful Thai-Buddhist attitude.

People who may be infected will ignore the risks they themselves take, and the risks to others, by putting it all down to kharma, being powerless to change fate, and refusing to accept the inevitable negativity that would come with admitting and dealing with it.

I have known Thais with HIV who have chosen to deny it, even to the point of refusing treatment, out of shame and preferring to accept that they were born to die young(er) and probably painfully. The only way to tackle this is to educate, not just the people in 'risk-groups' but the general population, that HIV is both preventable and can be treated if not, yet, cured.

That youngsters (and quite a few oldsters) all over the world are infatuated with sex is not news. But the lack of education about contraception is a very real problem in many countries with a similar Victorian attitude to sex. Alas recognising this problem is a long way off in societies which rely so heavily on denial.

[rubl]

Ah, porn sites to be blamed.

Now, pray tell, we never had a problem before the Internet emerged?

BTW k. Meechai may be getting desperate by now. Struggling to have sex education, use of condoms and still terrible results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechai_Viravaidya

[neverdie]

Easy access to pornography via the Internet and the Line chat application could be drawing impressionable youngsters into premature sex, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.

I've been using the internet since the dial-up house-sized lolmodems of the 1980s and I have never visited a porn site even once. I submit my 30 years of porn-free internet-use as a behemoth sized challenge to the claims of the OP.

So you are an old 'print man' . Has it's advantages, you only stick the pages up, no expensive keyboards, no chance of electric shock, unless of corse you consider static friction.

[HooHaa]

premature (????) sex linked to having genitalia.