Vietnam to get sex ed site

The sex education website could be available in Vietnam by December.— AFP

Hanoi - Vietnam may soon get its first sex education website for people too scared to talk openly about reproductive health, a topic widely considered taboo in the communist country.

The website would feature information, images and a question-and-answer forum aiming to combat ignorance and gender stereotyping now driving up teenage abortion and HIV/AIDS rates, said the institute behind the plan.

"Both young people and married couples still lack a lot of information about sexual health issues in Vietnam," said Dr Khuat Thu Hong, deputy director of the private Institute for Social Development Studies in Hanoi, on Thursday.

"Compared to neighbouring countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, our country is probably in a worse situation because we are more closed."

She said the institute hoped to launch the service by December, pending approval by the communist government, with the aim of encouraging safe sex.

"Our research has found many Vietnamese women do not dare to suggest condom use because it suggests a lack of trust rather than true love," she said.

"Vietnamese girls are traditionally supposed to be pure and naive and innocent, so many of them feel they can't talk about sexual issues because it suggests they are already experienced."

The question-and-answer forum would give people information not covered in school curricula, she said, but people with questions considered too raunchy would be referred to "other sources" or the institute's library.

Hong said the institute had informed both the Ministry of Culture and Information and the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee on Ideology and Culture of its plans and had received an initially positive response.

"We did talk with some of them about our intention and they welcomed it and said it is very useful," she said. AFP