The Moral Promotion Centre has launched a “Just a Meal for Valentine’s” campaign, urging youngsters to eat together instead of having sex.
Police are dispatching 300-member taskforces to keep watch on hourly motels in Bangkok to prevent teenagers under 18 from checking in today.
The Ministry of Culture, meanwhile, remains hopeful that Thai teens will opt to go and make merit at temples or do volunteer work to mark the “day of love”, as one of its surveys suggested.
Valentine’s Day has come around and these activities to deter teenagers from engaging in sexual activities are recycled and reused.
They are likely to be in the news again next year, too, because this “sex crackdown” will not succeed in addressing the problems they are meant to solve.
What are these problems?
The first one is Thai teens tend to believe the “day of love” is a special day for them to have sex.
A survey by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute last year showed that as many as 83% of teenagers polled said they planned to engage in sexual activities on the Valentine’s Day. Of the group, more than 27% were students.
What follows is a host of complications ranging from a rise in sexually transmitted diseases among youngsters and a high rate of unwanted pregnancies to substandard abortion services that could put women’s lives in danger.
If deterrence does not work, then what can be done to tackle these issues?
On this matter, Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat has shown he has a realistic grasp of the situation and a progressive attitude to match. In a pre-Valentine’s interview, Mr Vira said the ministry will not implement any measures to bar teenagers from having sex. That would be impossible.
Instead, what society should do is to educate them about relationships, reproductive health and safe sex, he said.
Indeed, sex education is the best method.
The catch, however, is that not only do Thai youngsters need to be taught about sexual relationships, but so do adults — especially those in charge of the country’s education and public health policies.
Early this month, chairman of the National Legislative Assembly Jet Siratharanon admitted that sex education
introduced in many schools has failed to prepare teens for their sex lives and has not equipped them with an ability to make responsible choices when it comes to sexual relationships.
The substance of the classes is partly to blame for the failure. But also, sex education has flopped because teachers themselves are too embarrassed to discuss the matter frankly.
The shortcomings have shown that adults must be trained to abandon conservative, sex-shy attitudes first before they can prepare an up-to-date sex education curriculum and teach it effectively.
Above all, there is no need for parents or policy makers to shame teenagers who have sex.
The recent refusal by the Office of the Basic Education Commission secretary-general to have condom vending machines installed in schools highlights an urgent need for a change in this unrealistic mindset.
Their unfounded fear that condom machines will encourage youngsters to have more sex speaks volumes on why sexual education has failed in Thailand.