As the winter holiday approaches, scholars and officials have expressed concerns over what they say are alarming trends of sexual activity among teenagers.
A poll made public yesterday indicated that teenagers tend to have more sex during weekends and holidays and that most of them are hesitant to practice safe sex.
The poll also found that when teenage girls get pregnant, they tend to turn to their friends for help instead of school counselors and teachers and that many opt for abortion.
The survey, conducted by the Hong Kong-based CTN Taiwan (
According to the survey, 44 percent of the teenagers interviewed said weekends are the best time to have sex and 37 percent were more active during winter and summer vacations.
While 61 percent of the teenage girls interviewed favored abortion if they were to get pregnant, only 11 percent said they would rather take the pregnancy to term.
After learning of their pregnancy, 76 percent of the teenage girls said they preferred to turn to their friends for help, while only eight percent said they would go to their teachers and school counselors, while 21 percent would seek help from parents.
The survey also found that 48 percent attributed a pregnancy to failure to use contraceptive devices while 16 percent responded that it was due to an unsuccessful attempt at contraception.
Chi Hui-jung (
"When schools ignore the problem, teenagers are on their own and have to take care of the situation themselves, namely getting an abortion. It not only creates social problems but also increases social costs," she said.
Chi suggested amending current laws to allow school counselors or social welfare organizations to act as a teenager's legal representative if needed to give consent for a legal abortion, instead of only parents, as the relevant laws currently dictate.
"Illegal abortion is a dangerous surgical procedure which might cause infertility, infection and even death," Chi said. "The education ministry should not keep avoiding the issue. It should consider adding sex education to the system to teach teenagers about safe sex."
General manager of Organon Taiwan Ltd (
"The usage of the oral contraceptives is very low in Taiwan compared to many other countries," he said. "They make women less vulnerable and less dependant on the good will of men."
Liu Dun-Kwei (
"According to our own studies, the sex information teenagers most want to have is how to make friends with the opposite sex and then how to behave when going out on a date, followed by how to prevent getting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and how to deal with pregnancy," she said.
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