Cast your mind back to Year 8 Health class. Remember awkwardly trying to slide a condom over a banana while your old P.E. teacher reminded you to squeeze the air out of the tip first? Well, it’s probably been a few years since then and sadly, it doesn’t sound like sex education has progressed very far at all.
A new study conducted by Queensland researchers has found that two-thirds of Australian school leavers didn’t know they could access emergency contraception without a prescription.
According to The Guardian, the name “morning-after pill” led 50% of the teenagers involved in the study to believe that emergency contraception was only effective within 24 hours after sex. In reality, the pill can be taken between 3 and 5 days after sex, depending on the type.
The study was conducted on the first day of Schoolies, where undoubtedly the rates of unprotected sex are high. The average age of the participants was 17, and while the females were three times more likely to have correct information about contraception than the male participants, the overall awareness was low.
What’s worse is that previous studies showed that this awareness around emergency contraception didn’t improve with age, which means teens are becoming adults who are blind when it comes to safe sexual measures.
Denise Hope, the lead author of the study, told The Guardian that young women find out information about contraception through “osmosis” or a “woman-to-woman network,” of sorts. While Hope acknowledged the consequences were greater for women, she also said that “it’s important young men know as well.”
“This information and awareness should not be just the domain of women,” she said.
If anything, the study proves that there needs to be an emphasis on relevant sex education at high school, and according to Hope, should be part of the broader curriculum. “I think we are aware that not all sex is going to be safe even if people intend for it to be safe upfront,” she said. “Contraceptive failure happens. Sexual assault happens. We want people to know that there are options afterwards if that happens to be the case.”
And that’s another point worth mentioning. Considering the growing number of sexual assault cases within high schools and universities around the world – for example, the rape of Stanford’s Chanel Miller by fellow student Brock Turner – should sex education also include the basics of sexual consent?
It appears that the sex education system, as it stands in Australia, is letting down students and is in need of a major overhaul. Especially when the health and wellbeing of millions of people is at risk.