This week Philadelphia Department of Health officials unveiled a new online condom distribution program that will mail free contraceptives to children as young as 11.
Using the department’s website (takecontrolphilly.org), pre-teen users now only need to submit a few personal details and the condoms will ship free of charge. Naturally, this announcement rattled parents in the city, who insist that 11 years old is too young for a sexual relationship, and suggest that making condoms freely available to middle school students implicitly sanctions such risky behavior. City health officials, meanwhile, have defended themselves by claiming the program reflects the reality of what’s happening in Philadelphia, unsettling as it may seem.
As Kevin Burns, executive director of a Philly-based health clinic, told Fox News, “An 11-year old is too young to be having sex, but does that mean 11-year-olds are not doing it? No. Let’s start first with why are they becoming sexually active so young and try to educate them about the risks of that.”
In recent years, Philadelphia has struggled to lower its soaring rates of STDs and teen pregnancies. As the Fox story indicates, a recent Youth Risk Behavior study found that 37 percent of sexually active high school teens in Philadelphia don’t use condoms. Take the potential for shame and embarrassment out of the transaction, however, and that figure just might climb. That’s yet another reason to have the sex talk with your kids—as awkward as it may seem.
For pre-teens, however, the uncomfortable question lingers: Is it appropriate to offer kids protection at the first sign of adolescence? Or in the name of protection are we actually risking the opposite—temptation?
—Mike Darling
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