Boston Launches Safer-Sex Campaign Targeting Teenagers Using Social Networking Sites, Other Outlets

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The Boston Public Health Commission has allocated $100,000 to a new campaign that uses social networking sites and other media outlets to raise sexual health awareness among teenagers, the Boston Globe reports. The city is facing increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases among those age 15 to 19, according to the Globe. The new campaign will include educational videos featuring teenagers that will air on the MTV, FX and BET television networks; radio and mass transit advertisements; and theater performances. Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites also will be used to reach teenagers with safer sex messages. Officials hope to address teenagers' "casual attitudes" toward sexually transmitted diseases, the Globe reports. Lydia Shrier, an adolescent medicine specialist at Children's Hospital Boston, said teenagers might say "'Hey, I may get HIV, but it's treatable and I'm going to live.' It's not a death sentence to them" (Smith, 8/4).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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