SA teens groping in the dark about sex

Despite sex education programmes on television, radio, billboards and in newspapers, some South African youngsters are still virtually clueless about sex, sexuality and HIV/AIDS.

Delegates attending the first South African Gender-Based Violence and Health Conference were on Friday astounded to be told that a survey conducted by Community Information Empowerment and Transparency (CIETafrica) had found that 12 percent of girls and 14 percent of boys aged between 12 and 20 believe that having sex with a virgin could cure AIDS.

Marietjie Myburgh, communications specialist at the CIETafrica three-day conference in Muldersdrift, said that these children also did not believe that condoms could help prevent the transmission of HIV.

Myburgh added that after filling in the questionnaires, the youngsters approached the field workers with questions about sexual violence and HIV and AIDS.

"Young people probably feel they do not have access to reliable information and they certainly don't seem to have adults who are guiding them on these issues," she said.

Myburgh said that the survey showed that young people did not have any idea about what constituted sexual violence and that both boys and girls were victims of sexual abuse.

"Boys under the age of 16 years were as likely to be victims of sexual abuse as girls in the age group between 12 and 14.

"Pupils across the age spectrum confirmed that boys were victims almost as often as girls," said Myburgh.

She said boys related personal experiences of male-on-male abuse but also of instances where older women and even girls from peer groups were the perpetrators.

"Most of the young people said violent sexual abuse with someone they knew was not sexual abuse and that girls were fond of violent men because they thought that violent men had money and power," Myburgh said.

Other alarming findings concerned the expectations of young girls about sexual behaviour.

Some 22 percent of girls said they did not have the right to refuse sex with their boyfriends and 30 percent of the boys said the same.

When asked if current educational programmes were doing any good about educating young people about sex, Myburgh said: "A lot of good work is being done but because it is so complex, it'll take longer to change people's attitudes. Programmes need to take into account evidence like this to fine tune their programmes."