Articles Archive - 2009

More than "I heard it 'round the schoolyard": Finding and evaluating sexual health information on the Internet

Written by Matthew Johnson, Media Education Specialist with the Media Awareness Network

One of the great achievements of the Internet has been to put all kinds of information at the fingertips of millions of people. From online encyclopaedias to search engines, some of the most successful online services are those that provide answers to questions by helping people sort through the mountains of information available online. It’s not surprising, then, that more and more young people rely on the Internet to answer their questions about one of the most sensitive of topics: sex.

Teens going online

Media Awareness Network’s 2005 Young Canadians in a Wired World Phase II research study showed that young people overwhelmingly turn to online sources when they need information – 91 per cent of students in Grade 11 chose the Internet over books from a library. A 2002 Council of Ministers of Education survey showed that the Internet was the third most common source of sexual information for teens, after school and friends. As Dr. Vyta Senikas, Associate Executive Vice-President of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, told The Globe and Mail when interviewed in March 2009, “It's a medium that adolescents are extremely comfortable with and it's a limitless resource."

Youth are turning to the Internet in part because they are unsatisfied with the kind of sexual health education they receive in school. According to a 2009 study by Planned Parenthood Toronto, the top three topics students want to learn about are healthy relationships, HIV/AIDS and sexual pleasure; the top three things they learn about sex in school are HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections and birth control. The same report found that only 17 per cent of Toronto youth had made use of public health resources, such as a clinic or doctor, for a sexual health reason.

The Internet has the potential to help redress some of the traditional barriers young people face when it comes to sexual information. A Public Health Agency of Canada report, Creating Support for Youth Sexual Health, found that the three most important barriers to youth learning about sexual health were a lack of access to resources, a fear of being embarrassed or judged on their interest in sexuality and being a member of a minority or marginalized group such as gay, lesbian or transgendered youth. The Internet has the potential to overcome all of these barriers: it can augment gaps where traditional venues for health information are less available, and it provides more current, in-depth, and interactive information than brochures and pamphlets. Online anonymity is another key advantage. The Internet offers youth a confidential and non-judgmental environment where they can pose difficult questions. As Rana Barar, program manager for the Web site sexetc.org (sponsored by Answer, a Rutgers University-based sexual education organization), told the Globe,"It's an opportunity for teens to ask the questions they're not getting answered in their sex ed. classes or by their parents." That same anonymity can make it a safe place for youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, or who are questioning their sexuality, to find information.

State of sexual knowledge

Despite being a treasure trove of content, it’s clear the Internet poses numerous challenges for youth seeking quality sexual health information. Material provided through Web sites may be biased or misleading and young people may lack the critical thinking skills to authenticate and validate the information they encounter online. In addition, online communities popular with youth are not secure venues for sharing personal health history and information provided by peers in these environments may not be accurate or reliable.

In 2008, legislators in Florida agreed to consider a bill requiring comprehensive sex education in schools after learning that many young people believed Internet rumours claiming that Mountain Dew is a contraceptive and that drinking bleach can prevent AIDS. Nor are Canadian youth any better informed: the Council of Ministers of Education study found that roughly half of Canadian Grade 9 students believe that a cure for AIDS exists, a slightly worse showing than when the same question was asked in 1989, and a 2005 study that appeared in Paediatric Child Health found that only 51 per cent of boys aged 14 to 17 had even heard of chlamydia. In fact, students who reported using the Internet as their main source of information on sex were less likely to correctly answer questions on HIV/AIDS than those who relied on teachers, health professionals or their parents.

Despite the easy access to good sexual health information the Internet provides, there’s little evidence that young people’s self-directed learning is paying off. Brief Report of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Canada, a 2006 study by the Public Health Agency of Canada, showed the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections has increased substantially, and reported that rates of both chlamydia and gonorrhoea are highest among youth aged 15-24.

Searching for good information

It's important to keep in mind that youth are genuinely interested in getting accurate and legitimate information about sex and sexuality; indeed, in our increasingly sexualized culture the need is greater than ever for good information to counter the confusing and often unhealthy messages youth get about sexual health and relationships.

If asked to imagine a young person searching the Internet for information of this kind, a parent or teacher would most likely feel some trepidation. Many of us have seen sexually explicit material appear as a result of innocuous search terms, so it's not hard to guess what would come up if the search actually related to sex. For this reason nearly all schools – and many homes – use filtering systems or programs, but these can be a double-edged sword in that that they typically block legitimate information about sexual health education as well.  

The best way to avoid getting unwanted results of any kind is to teach youth to do better searches. Despite their being extremely comfortable using the Internet, (which adults frequently misinterpret as being a high level of skill) young people often know very little about how to use it effectively. Search engines are a good example: few students have any idea of how to construct an effective search through a good choice of keywords and use of Boolean operators such as AND, OR and NOT.

For instance, research consistently shows that students use too few keywords to get good results. A simple search for "sex" will get predictable results, but adding the word "education" improves the search considerably. Making both terms essential by using AND – "sex AND education" or "+sex +education" (plus signs can be used to represent AND, and minus signs can be used to represent NOT) – focuses the search further still. From that point on, adding more specific keywords, such as "sex education contraception," guarantees mostly relevant results, while excluding certain terms using NOT can weed out irrelevant hits.

Good online sources

Once a young person has found an online source of information about sex, how do they evaluate whether or not it is reliable? Youth need some basic skills in learning how to evaluate a site’s credibility. This can be challenging, because for youth the two most popular means of judging a site's reliability are whether friends have used it and whether or not it "looks reliable." As young people may be reluctant to discuss this sensitive topic, personal recommendations are less likely. As well, many legitimate sex education sites use flashy graphics and sometimes shocking language to get teens' attention.

A good place to start is teaching youth to look at the author or sponsor of the site. Take, for example, SexualityandU (www.sexualityandu.ca). This site has sections dedicated to teachers, parents and of course teens; the teen section includes topics such as contraception, sexually transmitted infections and sexual orientation. The content – from broad questions like “What is sex?” to specific tutorials in subjects such as how to use a condom – is solid and accessible. Its home page states that it is run by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, an organization that has good reason to be seen as an authority on sex education.   

Another way of gauging a site's reliability is to see which other sites link to it. This can be done in many popular search engines by entering "link:" and then the site's Web address. A search for "link:www.sexualityandu.ca," shows that the site is linked to by many government and community health services such as the Public Health Agency of Canada and Yukon Health and Social Services, again suggesting that it is a legitimate source of information.

Some services also exist that certify a site as reliable. For instance, the Health on the Net Foundation (www.hon.ch) maintains a list of trustworthy sites of health information. Entering "sex education" into their search engine returns a list of sites that not only are fully relevant but have been certified as having legitimate information on healthy sexuality. The Web site also offers a browser plug-in that lets you check the status of a site without visiting the Health on the Net page.

Finally, it's useful to teach youth how to make sure a site is up-to-date. This can be important in sexual health education as a frequently-updated site is more likely to reflect current trends and concerns in youth sexuality and to draw on the most recent research. There are two ways of testing whether or not a site is up-to-date. The first is to look for a copyright or "last updated" date (sometimes different sections of a site will have been updated at different times). By scrolling to the bottom of the SexualityandU site, for instance, we see a copyright date of 2009 which – at the time of this writing – is the current year. While a current copyright date doesn't automatically mean the whole site has been kept up-to-date, a copyright date that is two or more years in the past suggests strongly that the site has been left untended. Another technique is to test the various links within the site; if links are "broken," leading to pages that have been moved or that no longer exist, this is more evidence that a site has not been recently updated.

Just the facts

Once it has been verified that the source is reliable, the question remains of how youth can find the information that is needed. Some sites are organized well enough to make this easy, but it's still useful to know how to search a site's information in depth. To begin with, most sites have their own search function which lets you look for what you need. In addition, many popular search engines let you limit your search to one particular Web site by putting "site:" and then the site's Web address after your keywords. For instance, a search for "most effective contraception site:www.sexualityandu.ca" leads immediately to a list of fully relevant results, including pages on specific forms of contraception and a more general page comparing the effectiveness of different types of contraception.

In some cases it may not be entirely possible to verify the information: some of the clues listed above – information about the source, links to the site and when it was last updated – may be incomplete. In this case one technique that can be taught to youth is the "triangle method": try to confirm any fact by consulting three more reliable sources. If all three sources agree, the fact is probably accurate. It’s important to remind youth to check the reliability of each source – three unreliable sources aren't any better than one.

Empowering students to make good choices

The traits that make the Internet so desirable for youth who are seeking sexual health information – confidentiality, anonymity, accessibility – reinforce the need for  educators, parents and community leaders to help young people develop the critical thinking and authentication skills that are needed to maximize the positive and minimize the negative aspects of accessing sexual health and relationship information online.

Given both the challenges and tremendous potential of the Internet, educators have a crucial role to play in helping young people develop the information, motivation, and behavioural skills needed to enhance their sexual health and avoid negative sexual health outcomes. In addition, digital technology can facilitate innovative teaching methods, actively engaging students in learning about topics like sexual health. Such education supports outcomes for both health and information/communications technology curricula.

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Media Awareness Network (MNet) is a Canadian not-for-profit centre of expertise in media literacy. Its vision is to ensure children and youth possess the necessary critical thinking skills and tools to understand and actively engage with media. MNet's programs are funded by its public and private sector sponsors and partners, who include: CTVglobemedia • Canwest • TELUS • Canadian Internet Registration Authority • CTV • National Film Board of Canada • Government of Canada.

Suggested websites:

Public Health Agency of Canada – www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/std-mts
Sexuality and U – www.sexualityandu.ca
Sex Information Education Council of Canada – www.sieccan.org
Canadian Federation for Sexual Health – www.cfsh.ca
Sexuality Education Resource Centre - www.serc.mb.ca
Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition - www.rainbowhealth.ca
Options for Sexual Health – www.wontgetweird.com

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