Fact-based sexual health education is crucial to dispel misinformation, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
“Taiwan’s youth can access all sorts of information on the Internet. It is important to provide them the correct information on sexuality and health, especially as the Internet abounds with misinformation,” Chen said in a keynote address at the 30th annual meeting of the Taiwan Association for Sexuality Education in Taipei.
When Taiwan was a conservative, closed society, “sex education was a taboo,” he said, adding that this affected the chapters on health and sexuality in textbooks.
However, he said that “society has opened up. Education on sexual health is now very important, and it should be included in public education for everyone.”
Chen said that past attitutes also make some Taiwanese unable to speak about love.
However, he said that public education can help people “express their love in open ways, which would be good for society as a whole.”
Chen urged the association and sexual health experts to draft teaching materials, including videos, that could be published online.
Such materials should address sexual abuse and empower victims to report incidents that could lead to prosecution, he said.
National Taiwan Normal University vice president Sung Yao-ting (宋曜廷) said that teen pregnancy is a global social issue.
“Taiwan also has to deal with it, so it is vital to have correct information,” Sung said.
“We have to make consultation by sexual health experts available, which would improve people’s quality of life,” he added.
Fu Jen Catholic University president Vincent Chiang (江漢聲), a physician, said that many patients at his clinic report having erectile dysfunction.
“Although the functioning of the human sex organs gradually declines with age, maintaining an active love life is often more effective than taking pills or hormone supplements,” he said.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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