Teens get more birth control information from parents than online sources: Vancouver Sun

Insert sigh of relief here.

A newly released study of U.S. teens found that they tended to be skeptical of sex information found online, preferring to learn more from parents or friends.

Researchers at New York’s Guttmacher Institute, which tracks public sex education in the U.S. and abroad, talked to 58 teens age 16 to 19 to find out where they get information on contraception and how much they trust it. While most teens in the survey had talked to friends about safe sex, only about one-third said they’d been exposed to contraception information online, and most were “wary” of the accuracy of information from both sources.

 “There’s this assumption that teens are these blank slates and just uncritically absorb the information that’s given to them,” said Rachel Jones, a senior research associate and lead author of the paper. “Our expectation, not just with the Internet but in a variety of forums, was that teens are a little more critical of information.”

Read more: http://www.canada.com/health/Teens+turn+blind+information+Study/4868187/story.html#ixzz1O9q7XNwM

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