New Website Offers Parents Help In Safeguarding Kids' Sexual Health
by Mary Rettig
February 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An official in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is hailing a new tool available to parents who want to teach their kids about staying safe from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease by abstaining from sexual activity. Pediatrician Dr. Alma Golden says the website 4Parents.gov was developed at the request of President George W. Bush, and is designed to encourage parents to talk with their kids about abstinence. The website gives mothers and fathers ideas on how to start these important conversations.
Golden tells parents they should not be intimidated by the prospect of talking to their kids about sexual abstinence because young people are already getting the message.
''There was a Harris poll reported in the Washington Times that shows that young people, those under the age of 30, are more likely to recognize the value of abstinence education than those people that are much older," the doctor notes. "So I think a lot of young people have begun to realize that they don't just want sex. They want relationships."
According to the results of that Harris Interactive poll, the majority of young adults under 30 believe abstinence education is effective, while the majority of older adults do not. However, Golden points out, the 4Parents.gov website exists to help convince parents of the benefits of abstinence education, parental involvement, and communication in influencing teens to make healthy and safe sexual choices.
"The website actually is designed to provide information for parents so they can understand how important it is for them to talk to their teens," the physician and HHS official notes. She says the website offers adults "Talk Tips" and "Facts" as well as "Conversation Starters" that revolve around daily occurrences so as to make it easy for the parents to broach the subject of sex.
Also, Golden adds, the 4Parents.gov website has an area for teens who have already committed to abstinence. That area's resources, along with those the site offers for parents, are designed to help both adults and youth learn how choosing abstinence can positively affect kids' physical and emotional health for the present and for the future.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
