Having sex at a young age causes great harm to society, because such behaviour can result in prostitution, fighting and conflicts between partners.
According to the law, males and females can marry at the age of 18, with the marriage to be agreed to by both husband and wife. If a couple has sex before marriage, the man must be responsible for what happens to the girl, in accordance with tradition.
If the girl gets pregnant, the man must pay a fine, the expenses involved in the birth of the baby and any other costs. Some teenage boys and girls are now facing problems when they have sex before marriage. If the girl becomes pregnant, very often the boy is not able to provide for her because he is not a wage earner.
In the end the girl sometimes has to have an abortion and break up with her boyfriend. Such behaviour can lead girls into a cycle of prostitution, drug addiction and disease.
There should be organisations to deal with this problem, starting from the institution of family. Parents and educational insitutions should advise their children early on if they see them engaging in undesirable behaviour, so they don’t get into trouble later on.
KUALA LUMPUR - Many countries now have sexual health education in school, but teachers often focus on the health and biological side of the topic and leave out the very issue they need to address – sexuality, say experts at a regional conference here in November.
Teachers are wary of talking about sex with young people because they are uncomfortable with the subject or fear encouraging – or being seen as encouraging -- youngsters to have sex at an early age, says Hathairat Suda, senior programme assistant with the Bangkok-based Programme for Appropriate Technology on Health (PATH).
“(But) If you wait to talk about sex with your children at the late age, it is might be too late since your children might be already at risk of reproductive health and sexual health problems,” Hathairat said at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health that ended Sunday.
The need to have education about reproductive and sexual health early – especially during adolescence -- has been widely discussed here, given that young people in Asia are having their first sexual experiences earlier than ever and information is needed to keep them from risky behaviour.
But in many Asian countries, sex is taboo for public discussion, often due to social, cultural and religious factors.
Some groups at the same time are trying more innovative ways of getting messages about reproductive health across – through the use of television shows in Malaysia, pushed by Marina Mahathir, daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, to the use of theatre in the Philippines, to lobbying by progressive religious groups in parts of Indonesia.
But it takes creativity -- and pragmatism. Indonesia’s Jery Lohy says the programme he helps with among Christian youngsters manages to convey sensitive information about safer sex, but “we can’t say the word ‘sexual’. We just say biological, or reproductive health.”
In Sri Lanka, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is trying to carry out a pilot project on teaching sex education to children the first grade and building on these sex-education messages in an appropriate fashion for each grade level thereafter.
“We have to start since they are young so that they will gradually familiar with the issue by starting with health issues like cleanliness for grade one and then add more messages in the upper grades and finally talk about safer sex,” said Asela Ramjet Kakugampitiya, UNFPA’s monitoring and evaluation officer.
“However, we are not sure whether we can talk directly about safe sex. Sex education is also a controversial issue in our country too,” he said.
When a candid teen manual on sexuality was published a few years ago in Thailand, it drew the wrath of many conservatives, from academic persons to policymakers who said it promoted promiscuity and the wrong values.
The furore showed that while it has become an option for some schools to teach sex education, its implementation has not always been carried out successfully. Often, sex education classes in Thailand emphasise anatomy and biological topics.
In Vietnam, sex education is part of biology class for high school students. But starting from Grade 6, students can learn about the body parts and the reproductive system.
In Laos, there are no direct lessons on sex education but it is included in biology subject in high school that discusses body parts and the reproductive system. In Burma, there are no lessons about sex education at all.
While local beliefs and culture can be a barrier for intervention on safer sex, statistics cited during the conference point to the need for better information on reproductive and sexual health at a young age.
One million women have died in eight Asian countries alone due to unsafe abortion, pregnancy or childbirth, according to a just-released report on progress on the reproductive and sexual health goals in the decade since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.
Millions more women and young people have suffered due to unsafe abortion and childbirth, and lack of access to respectful and caring quality health services, added the study by the Kuala Lumpur-based Asia-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) covering Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The failure of sex education is part of the causes of unsafe abortion and other problems, says Rashidah Abdullah, co-founder of ARROW and a member of its board of directors.
People need to understand that sex education it s not only about sexual intercourse and safer sex, but about life, reproductive health campaigners stressed.
Haithairat listed six factors in sex education: discussions of organs linked to reproductive health, relationships with partners and other people, communication skills, understanding of the socio-cultural context, acceptance of the diversity of human behaviour and sexual orientation, and prevention and health care.
But sex education classes often touch only on two of these points – biology and prevention and health care.
“All points should come together. If you know how your body works and how you can protect yourself from disease but you don’t know the level of your relationships and don’t know how to communicate with your partner for safer sex, it is not useful at all,” Haithairat added.
Definitely, it would be something wrong with having sex before marriage, especially with the case of underage teenagers.
In many countries there are good campaigns to promote not to have sex before getting married for young girls. I think, our youth union needs to promote this campaign, but not just promote sex education where people can be taught how to use condom only.
In many countries, probably including in Laos there is a law prohibited men having sex with underage girls. Lots of Western men were put in jail for having sex with underage girls in Cambodia and Vietnam. However, I never heard the case happened in Laos.
I heard that if the girls have sex too early, they would not be good wives. They will be the women who need men all the times. Have you ever heard the Lao term as "Phu Ying Khad Phu Sai Bor Dai"? When they get married, their husbands cannot go anywhere. That means they cannot be patient to wait for their husbands. That is because having sex too early makes their characters changed.
So, be careful with your girlfriends, please wait until your girlfriends are 18 years old if you love each other, otherwise you can spoil them.
I think telling kids about abstinence can only succeed to certain degree. you'll just be repeating what they already heard and know themselves. telling kids these days to not have sex until they are married is not enough.
once you have done telling kids they should not have sex until marriage, you need to follow up by telling them the importance of condom use to prevent diseases and pregnancy .
also, parents should teach themselves the value of being a role model for their sons and daughters.
-girls need parents to look up to, who have strong and confident self-esteem.
-boys should be taught from early age about respecting the female gender.
-society should continue making effort to include females in all aspect of social, political, and economic process.
Here is my simple analysis to the question. Do you buy car without test drive it few times? LOL
I don't know about you guys but I have to test drives it many times. This way I know that I'm getting a good ride. hahahahha
Typical loser talk. And that's probably how you're going to raise your daughters? Turn them into sluts?
If you're not willing to take the responsibility when one of your test drives gets pregnant you'd better test drive an old bike. Then again, most guys who boast about their conquests usually never get any.
I applaud the law in Laos. Many people from the west, male and female, see it as a no-freedom issue. Well, seeing the problem these countries have with single mothers, many of them still in their teens, only shows how they can learn from Laos. Plus, it has nothing to do with freedom. Freedom means that you're protected, not that you can just run amok. I think Laos is a free country, communist or not. It has wonderful people who are far more hospitable than its western counterparts.
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