- It was recently World Sexual Health Day,
and the theme this year is Turn It On:
Sexual Health in a Digital World.
And as somebody who works in sex education and sexual health
in the digital sphere, I wanted to chat about it.
"The use of technology has called for the reframing
and reconceptualization of what is sexual health
and sexual rights in a digital world,
and we need to learn how to integrate technologies
in people's lives in an ethical human rights framework."
That sounds like a big task.
So first up, what is sexual health?
A lot of different organisations
have come up with their own definitions of sexual health,
but I just made a list.
Sexual health includes some of the obvious things
you might think of like STIs, reproductive health,
including contraception and abortion.
Sexual health is about information and choices and access.
Sexual health is healthcare.
Sexual health is about being free from sexism, homophobia,
transphobia, racism, and ableism.
It's about being free from sexual abuse and violence.
Sexual health includes our sexual rights,
which are human rights.
Sexual health is also about sexual wellbeing:
physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
It's about our sexual relationships and behaviours,
and also included in sexual health is pleasure
and sexual liberation.
So I don't know about you, but I think that sexual health
is pretty important and encompasses
and impacts so many different areas of our lives.
Let's talk about this digital world that we are in.
How digital is it?
There are now 4.1 billion people using the internet.
That is 53.6% of the global population.
That may seem huge, but it also means
that there are 3.6 billion people who are offline.
And just to give an example of how different it is
in different continents.
Europe is 82% online and Africa is 28% online.
Let's talk about some digital sexual behaviours.
Technology has become entwined in so many parts
of our lives, including our sex lives and our love lives.
Things like sexting, phone sex, video sex, sending nudes,
all of that kind of stuff.
Just think of the impact that technology
and the internet have had on pornography.
We've gone from like, magazines to it being everywhere,
and then VR porn as well.
We've got sex toys that are now Bluetooth controlled
or like you can control over like long distances
if you're in a long distance relationship.
You can have one person on one end controlling the toy
and the other person experiencing what that toy is doing.
And there are also integrations of toys
with like cam sites.
For instance, a sex worker might be doing a cam show
and have a toy that can be controlled remotely
and people can pay to control the toy,
which I think is kind of cool.
Of course, there are now dating apps
and just how dominant they are in how people
meet each other and interact.
And online, the digital space is often where people go
to seek out information, resources, and community
around sexual health, sexuality, and gender,
and all of that stuff.
So people are using technologies,
people are using the internet in all sorts of different ways
in order to manage their sexual health,
access information, manage their love lives,
interact with other people sexually.
This has been said many, many times
in lots of different contexts,
but in the Western world, especially,
the line between online and offline,
like, it's not really a line anymore.
They are so integrated. It is so one.
We just ebb and flow between the two.
So the thing that I really want to talk about
is digital sexual and reproductive health education,
because that is the world that I am in,
and I think it's really important to integrate
and talk about online sex education,
and some of the good stuff about it
and potentially bad stuff about it.
So online sex education comes in all different shapes
and sizes: YouTube videos, Instagram, TikTok,
TikTok these days, podcasts and websites and blogs.
Just like, if it is internet content,
then there is somebody making that kind of content,
that is sex ed.
And then there's the whole world
of sexual wellness apps and platforms.
All of these apps are doing education.
They might have courses.
Some of them are audio erotica. Lovely.
And then there's the whole world of fertility
and menstrual tracking apps.
And if you're interested in that,
I did do a whole hour long video where I tried and compared
five different fertility tracking apps.
We get real hard into the data.
And one of the things that I want to mention
about these apps, the sexual wellness ones
and also these fertility ones,
is that they all kind of come under this umbrella
of the Femtech industry,
and are very much aimed at women, specifically cis women,
And that makes me have lots of complicated feelings
because on the one hand,
I know how much sex education has specifically failed women
and LGBTQ+ people.
And it's empowering.
People are getting to know their bodies.
This stuff is becoming less stigmatised
and more normal for a lot of people.
But then on the flip side,
I kind of get vibes that this is just another form
of emotional labour that women
and people of other marginalised genders are expected to do
in a sex positive society.
That sexual development is labour
and creating sexual knowledge is labour,
and it's all very individualised.
And it's seen as a women's issue or an LGBT issue.
And there is a really great quote about this
in Catherine Angel's "Tomorrow Sex Will be Good Again".
It says, "That great sex doesn't always come naturally
as a useful insight, but it is overwhelmingly women
who are expected to spend time and resources
on this kind of work.
The work many have argued of heterosexual love."
Who in my relationship is doing the?
I mean, it is my job.
So those are my slightly incoherent thoughts
on sexual wellness.
And I'm just going to sit in this like,
muddly middle-ground forever, I think,
'cause like, why come down hard on either side?
That doesn't sound fun.
And then another thing that it's really important
to think about when it comes to online sex education
is privacy and data.
All of these platforms, all of these apps that we're using
are collecting some information on us.
And when it comes to sexual health, oftentimes the things
that we might be trying to access information for
can be really sensitive.
And they also might not be things that people
in your IRL life know about.
So that's something that we need to be really aware of.
And especially when we are creating and developing
online sex ed materials that are aimed at young people.
Okay, some good stuff about digital sex ed.
It is super accessible,
especially for young people and young adults.
Obviously also depends on where you live,
but for those who are connected to the internet,
so accessible to get sex ed information online.
People can find community online,
speaking to people with similar identities or experiences
to them that they may not have access to
in their day-to-day life, in-person, at school,
or where they live.
The information is free
if you're already paying for your internet.
And it's really convenient, again,
for those with internet access.
It's just right there in your pocket, super easy.
The bad stuff.
Well, it's not really a case of good stuff, bad stuff.
It's just about thinking about everything critically.
Even the things that we love,
and obviously I love online sex ed.
♪ It's what I do ♪
♪ It's where I got most of my sex ed from ♪
Even though we might think of the internet as this like,
free, open, democratic space,
governments, corporations, and religious power structures
can have a huge impact in the digital sphere.
If we think about FOSTA-SESTA
which are intended to be anti-trafficking laws
that were passed in the U.S.,
these have had a huge impact on sexual content online.
These laws that were passed in one country
out of the entire world,
because social media platform companies
are based in that same country,
this has just had an impact across the entire internet
and entire globe.
It's led to lots of websites
and lots of social media platforms
cracking down on sexual content.
Now, this mainly hurts sex workers.
Sex workers are just being squeezed and squeezed
out of safe places to run their businesses online,
as we've seen recently with the whole OnlyFans debacle,
and sex educators and sexual health and wellness companies
and services also get caught up in this.
And it is made even worse if you are Black, if you're fat,
if you are LGBTQ+, if you are disabled.
Like, if you're marginalised in any way,
then it's more likely to impact you.
A lot of sexual wellness companies
have difficulties advertising.
Often their ads get banned by Facebook,
so they just cannot let people know
about their services or products.
And yes, the internet is meant to be a place
of possibilities, but there are so many restrictions
that it means that it's actually really difficult
to get this information to the people
who you're trying to serve.
There also might be blockers on school computers
that prevent young people
from accessing information at school,
and maybe they're not able to get online at home,
and so school might be the only safe place
that they can do that.
There's issues of cyber bullying
and online sexual harassment.
And as I mentioned before,
privacy and confidentiality online is a whole beast
that I don't particularly understand, but it's important.
And of course, then there's the issue
of is this information that you're accessing
accurate or reliable?
What is the expertise and qualifications
of sex educators online?
And this is also a bit of a double-edged sword,
because obviously you want your information
to be coming from a reliable source,
but also we don't want to be gate-keeping
being able to become a sex educator, but also currently,
as it stands, there is no universal,
official accreditation to become a sex educator.
Not in the same way that there is to become like a doctor
or a therapist or a teacher.
So, sex education online is a bit of a free for all,
because it's amazing that anyone can do it,
but also anyone can do it.
Also, what populations may be being missed
in terms of access to digital sexual health, like age,
race, class, religion, disability, or location.
And then funding. Money, money, money, baby.
Funding is limited. Sex ed is not well funded.
Sexual health charities have a lot of information online,
but there have just been cuts and cuts and cuts,
and funding to them is so limited.
You'll be lucky
if you get any local council or government grants.
One of the main funding models that we've seen
is for-profit businesses that do sex education work.
So like, sex toy shops, for instance,
that have like a whole education section on their website
and create educational blogs and videos and things.
For sex educators like myself,
things like brand sponsorships and partnering
with said companies.
And also things like Patreon are a huge help,
but should sex education be privately funded?
I mean, it's not being publicly funded well enough.
So what are you going to do?
Patreon, I think is a brilliant model for funding
online sex education.
I'm a Patreon of a few different sex educators,
including Sexplanations, Eva Bloom, and BISH UK.
So, if online digital sexual health education
is something that you want to support,
definitely see if these platforms,
if these places that you have have a Patreon,
or just have a way to directly donate to them,
if they are a nonprofit for instance.
So those are my thoughts on digital sexual health.
I would love to hear what you think about all of this.
What have I missed out of this?
Because I'm sure there are plenty of things
that I haven't even thought about.
And I would love to hear from you in the comments
in terms of where did you get
most of your sex education from?
Was it in person or was it online?
Thank you so much for watching.
Happy World Sexual Health Day,
and I'll see you in my next video; bye.
(upbeat music)