The internet. The greatest, largest, information highway in the modern world. Quick answers to any question imaginable. My question; is it really THAT easy to find the information that you need right away. Not just random facts that you can just as easily forget.I personally have been learning to use the internet to solve difficult questions since elementary school. I've learned how to phrase my questions well to receive the correct answer. However, is the average teen able to do so. If a teenage girl needs to find information that she may be to embarrassed to ask about, can she do so on the internet? She may need answers about STD's or birth control, or just on sex in general. I believe she could.
Now, does that mean that the internet is the best place for her to learn about such important things such as sex. When you take in to consideration all the other places she could learn it, maybe or maybe not. She could learn it from her parents, but how often does that really work out? How about learning from friends? It would depend on the type of friends she has if that's good or bad. TV, also might not be a good idea, but depends on the type of person she is, and what she watches. Yet, if we take into consideration that she IS going to the internet for answers, then it could be the best place to get it, for her personally.
Is that information easy to access though? That's the difficult question. How easy is it to get “good” valuable information about STD's, or birth control. I tried this myself, to see what type of info a girl might get when trying to tackle these tough questions herself. I went on a few of the major search engines and try to find what information I could find about oral sex. Google; the three last links out of ten on the first page were about health concerns of oral sex, while the others were about tips on giving oral sex, and news stories about politics and oral. Not to a great start.
Next I tried a little more specific, to see if it might help. I searched for “oral sex facts” on Ask and the turn out was a little better. I had a few more health wise links, but I also had religious links questioning if oral counted as sex. Which is an important issue by itself. Continuing on to Bing I searched for “oral sex concerns”, trying to get down to the real answers someone might need. At this point I got the goods. Every link was to safe sex, and about STD's , and how to protect oneself, and on the importance of that decision to have sex.
Through out this search I've found that it may be difficult for people to find the information that they need on the internet if they don't know where or how to look, or even what they're looking for. I'm not going to say anything bad about the specific search engines, as this was not to determine which one is better, or has the best results in the fastest time. I truly believe however, that a teen could indeed find the best advice on safe sex, on any mainstream search engine, if they truly wanted it. All I had to do was type in “oral sex concerns” and I found it. I would however make it easier for teens to access by making those sites more accessible, by targeting other teens that might not go looking for it. Show teens that it's there when they need it, don't shove it down their throats, but have it there a little to side. A safety net, that can catch them before they fall.
