It’s Friday again ONE Condoms supporters and when Friday rolls around it’s time for ONE’s weekly links roundup! Below you’ll find news stories from the last week regarding condoms, safe sex, and sex education. Be sure to check out the developments in mandatory condom use for porn actors, QR Condoms, and the “Study Sex College Tour,” all of which have been rocking the sexual health world this past week.

If you’d like to share any additional stories we may have missed please leave them in the comments. We’d love to hear what else is going on in spreading safe sex awareness.

Condoms

Condoms In Porn Petition: Los Angeles County Measure Could Make It To November

Condom users make big mistakes that can lead to pregnancy, STDs

Women’s Condom Use Drops During 1st Year of College

QR Codes on Condoms: ‘Check-Ins’ Let You Share Your Safe Sex

Money Seems to Matter for Teen Girls, Condoms

China enforces new condom rule

Safe Sex

Zac Efron Earns a Boy Scout Safe Sex Badge

Program Increases Safe Sex Practices in Latina Women

Condom use 101: Basic errors are so common, study finds

Sex Education

Sex education should be a joint responsibility of parents, teachers

‘Study Sex College Tour’ makes Sex Ed cool, prioritizes pleasure

Utah Will Be Damned if Sex Ed Classes Teach About Anything Sex-y

Seniors and sex: Education important at any age

In today’s digital age, you’re likely to share a lot about your personal life online already. Now, you can also “check in” when you have sex!

The Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest (PPGNW) established a program that allows you to share with the world when and while you’re practicing safe sex. The PPGNW, in observation of National Condom Week, distributed 55,000 condoms with QR codes on them. QR are scannable barcodes that take you to the wheredidyouwearit.com (WDYWI), where you can report your protected sex sessions’ location. 

PPGNW says “it’s like Foursquare for people who don’t want a sexually transmitted infection.” The Where Did You Wear IT site has an interactive map that pinpoints your exact location of where you did it. It does not share any of your personal information either. The website is searchable by gender, orientation, age, location, relationship status, the reason for using condoms, and the quality of the sex.

The campaign has taken off. People from 48 states and 6 continents have reported where they did it. You don’t have to have a QR condom to participate. You can check in directly without a QR specific condom too.

The goal of Where Did You Wear It is clear. It is to promote safe sex and to universalize condom use into common and preferred behavior. According to PPGNW’s media coordinator, “we hope the site promotes discussions within relationships about condoms and helps to remove perceived stigmas that some people may have about condom use.”

Data also suggests that many people do n’t know how to use a condom correcty A Sexual Health journal study released last month found many user errors. The PPGNW campaign looks to spread more information to its user to encourage safe sex behviors. PPGNW is targeting college aged students and millennials who are comfortable with social media and who are proud to share they wore protection.

ONE Condoms supports initiatives that spread safe sex messages and encourage people to make healthy and safe choices when it comes to their sexual health. ONE Condoms want to make condoms as socially acceptable as toothpaste and safer sex as second nature as wearing a seat belt. A portion of every ONE Condoms sale goes towards HIV/AIDS prevention efforts at home and abroad.

Are you willing to share where you practiced safe sex with the world and spread the safe sex message?

It’s Friday and that means it’s time for our ONE® Condoms weekly links roundup. ONE® is here to keep you in the know and up to date with all news relating to condoms, safe sex, and sex education. 

During this #nationalcondomweek, how will you be spreading the safe sex message? Will you be sharing where you wore it during your last sexual experience?

Please submit additional links we might have missed regarding sex and relationships.

Condoms

AIDS activists launch million-condom tour in Venice Beach

NYC’s ‘Condom Finder’ App’s Valentine’s Upgrade

Are Condoms Restricting the Flow of the Adult Film Industry in Los Angeles?

Condoms trend on Valentine’s Day

Free condom program in Keys promotes safe sex

California initiative offers free condoms to reduce transmission of STDs

National Condom Week aims to educate

National Condom Week: ‘Where did you wear it?’

‘International Condom Day’ 2012

Catholics, Condoms and the Separation of Church and State

Safe Sex

Group opens dialogue to recognize safe sex methods

New safe sex campaign aims to lower Nunavik’s “alarming” STI rates

National Condom Day encourages safe sex

Thai NGO advocates safe sex in Bangkok red-light districts

Truckers are savvy about safe sex

Irish students fail to grasp safe sex message according to new SHAG week survey

‘Tekkin Charge’ on Valentine’s Day

Sex Education

Does sex ed keep girls from becoming teen moms?

Sex education: far from decent

Let Utah voters, not lawmakers, decide on sex education for their kids

City sex education text targets families

Teachers urged to address porn factor

Let’s talk about sex

L.A., home to the multibillion dollar U.S. porn industry, will soon be forced to decide whether condoms should be required in adult films to reduce sexually transmitted diseases. If and when the vote is held, should LA residents vote for adult film producers to require the use of condoms on porn sets as a condition for getting movie permits? 

Currently most adult film companies there shoot films without condoms. Arguments against this possible condom mandate include current workplace rules protecting porn employees from STI’s by mandatory testing. Producers claim that condoms are required when adult film actors could be exposed to an STI.  

Even so, this regulatory measure is not 100% fool proof. Derrick Burts, a former adult film actor, was infected with HIV on a shoot and claimed that most performers would like to wear condoms but actors do not wish to go against the wishers of the producers.

Condoms should absolutely be required in adult film movies. Here’s why.

The average age when children first watch porn is just 11 and the fact is pornography is rapidly replacing positive sex education. 

Children have been turning to adult films since schools don’t handle the positive aspects of sex clumsily. Sex and intimacy is avoided in schools. According to sex researcher Maree Crabbe, “porn has become a cultural mediator in how young people are understanding and experiencing sex.”

One teenage boy from her study said “Growing up, watching porn – that’s sort of where you get your grasp of what’s normal and what’s not.” 

Government needs to address these attitudes and trends by forcing porn producers to use condoms. That way, even with upward trends in youngsters watching porn, positive condom use and sex positive behavior will be engrained into the youth.

ONE^® Condoms is for a mandate on positive condom use in the porn industry. A portion of every ONE Condoms sale goes to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts at home and abroad. You can find out more about the referendum here.

Are you for or against this initiative?

A recent study has found that the majority of Americans don’t use condoms. The study found that 6 out of 10 (60%) men and women didn’t use any form of protection against HIV/AIDS when they lost their virginity. The study examined the sexual habits of 26,000 people in 26 countries and found the U.S. to be behind in condom use. 

The justification of this risk taking is that 49% of respondents said they were confident their sexual partner was free of any STI. Despite this confidence, 20% of those in a relationship admitted they were unsure of their partner’s sexual history. After the act, nearly 24% of all U.S. women say the lack of condom use was a mistake that they regretted.

One way to expel these risky sexual behaviors is to enhance efforts to educate teens about safe sex well before they have become sexually active. Since, nearly half of all high school teenagers have had sex already, it is time to start introducing safe sex practices earlier. 

This study has highlighted how important it is to continue to foster sex positive education programs to make sexually active Americans of all ages aware of all the possible risks.

ONE® Condoms directly supports sexual education efforts and universal positive condom use. A portion of every ONE® Condoms purchase goes to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts at home and abroad.

A new survey of 4,014 citizens from the US, the UK, and Canada has revealed that there are varying attitudes and opinions on what topics should be addressed when discussing sexual education. 

All three countries believe that parents or guardians should be primarily responsible for teaching sex education to children and teens at some level. 

However, you start to see differences of opinion when you start talking about when to begin sex education. 24% of Canadians wish to start sex ed courses at age 9 or earlier, compared with 13% of Americans and 17% of British who feel this way. Nearly 33% of residents in each country believe the best time to start sex education is between 12 and 13 years old.

As for sex education in schools, 10% of Americans, 3% of Canadians & 2% of British are against courses in schools. All three countries believe Sex Education is necessary, but what should it teach is not agreed upon. 

90% of people in the three countries believe topics like pregnancy, birth control, venereal diseases, sexual abuse, and bullying should be discussed. Check out the chart below for additional sex education topics.

We see more differences when respondents look back on their sexual education and what influenced them. 

All three countries agreed that conversations with friends were useful & that the media, & sex education courses influenced them.

Overall, Americans believe the main source for sex education should come from the family. The British appear to be dissatisfied with sex education courses with only 43% of them calling it “useful”. Canadians,on the other hand, are the most open to discussing pleasure and homosexuality, and want to see sex education courses start at an earlier age.

ONE Condoms believes quality sex education is integral to creating a healthy society. In fact,ONE donates a portion of each sale to HIV/AIDS education and prevention efforts in the US and Internationally.

What do you think is the best way to teach sex education? Is it through friends, sex ed courses, the media, online or your family?

From November 22 to December 5, 2011, installation artist Bryan McCormack will highlight a hall of condoms on 6 floors of the National Modern Art Museum of France (Centre Pompidou). The artist has chosen to multiply the condom and take it out of its normal context as to create a motif of protection seen in a new light.

“Condoms evoke imagery not only of protection from STI’s but also symbolize the male gender, sexuality, eroticism, religion, customs and values. Thru art, I’d like to eliminate all associations around it and consider the condom as an object beyond its functionality”, says McCormack.

As you walk through the hall and to the middle of the installation, you are spun into a mix of your own associations with condoms coupled with consistent condom repetition designed to liberate your perceptions. The installation is paired with environmental sound and music.

ONE Condoms supports self-expression and art especially in the pursuit of research against AIDS. ONE donates a portion of each sale to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts at home and abroad.

Do you think that the exhibit will spark a discussion to combat religious negativity surrounding condom use?

Check out these ads from Germany. Their message was “use a condom, and be sure you’re not bringing the next Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong into the world.” Although the hairdo’s are enough to scare the living daylights out of you, we got a kick out of them. ONE Condoms believes in desired pregnancies, safe sex and the prevention of terrorism, of course. 

ONE Condoms believes in a future where practicing safe sex is considered universal behavior and as normal as using toothpaste. ONE Condoms donates a portion of every sale to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts at home and abroad.

Happy Monday! What better a way to start off the week than being reminded by an animated hot dog that your life is in your hands. Always use condoms.

The whole month of November, LoopDeLoop, a monthly animation challenge, is featuring condoms as its theme in honor of World Aids Day December 1st. Check back periodically for additional animation videos.

ONE Condoms supports self-expression and art to promote safe sex. ONE donates a portion of each sale to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts at home and abroad.