‘Bare All’ survey reveals young people’s sexual behaviour

An online poll for BBC Radio 1 surveyed young people about sex, condoms, infections and one-night stands. 

The Radio 1 poll, carried out in conjunction with BBC 1Xtra, Durex and MTV, also suggested that 43% of young people had had at least five sexual partners with one in five having more than 10. Fifty-seven per cent claimed to have had a one-night stand.

Some 38% of young people do not always use a condom with a new partner. The most common reason (44%) was that the girl was on the pill; the second most common reason (17%) was being too drunk. Alcohol was also strongly linked to a young person’s first experience of sex, with 37% saying they had had a drink before having sex for the first time.

One in 10 claimed to have had no sex education at school, while three quarters said they only learned the basics. Many showed a lack of awareness about contraception failure, with 43% not knowing it was possible to get pregnant if a condom is not used correctly and 35% unaware that the contraceptive pill can also fail. Asked what their biggest worry was regarding sex, 41% said pregnancy, 24% said HIV and 22% sexually transmitted infections.

Young people made up two-thirds of the 29,623 who responded to the online poll. Twenty-three per cent of women under 18 said they felt pressured to have sex, compared to 33% of those 32 and over. Four per cent of the young people quizzed said they had not lost their virginity, the same number as had had sex before 14. Some 9% had had sex at 14 and 17% at 15. Respondents in Wales and south west England tended to lose their virginity earlier, while Londoners and people from Northern Ireland lost it later than the average.

Men aged 16 to 34 were more likely to describe themselves as homosexual - 6% compared to 2% of women. But 11% of women said they had experimented, compared to 4% of men.

A spokeswoman for Brook, the sexual health charity for young people, said: ‘In many respects these findings are not surprising, but they are still worrying. What it shows is how important it is to provide young people with good sexual education. But unfortunately much of the teaching in schools is too biologically-based.’

Vicky Field, of the HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust, said: ‘Without changes in the way we talk to young people about sex, rates of sexually transmitted infections will continue to increase dramatically.’

A Department of Health spokeswoman said the government was trying to improve sex education and access to sexual health clinics. She added: ‘We cannot tell people how many sexual partners they should have, but we do know that the more sexual partners a person has the greater the risk from STIs and unintended pregnancy. Teenagers who have talked about sex and relationships are more likely to delay the age when they first have sex and are more likely to use contraception and be responsible in their relationships.’

Health minister Norman Warner said: ‘We have to get them to use condoms more in their sexual encounters.’

Sexual health experts warned that current NHS deficits were causing cutbacks in STI treatment for young people. Earlier in August a government advisory group claimed that a £300m programme to tackle England’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections was in danger of collapse because NHS trusts have siphoned off the money to reduce their debts. (See Sexual health funding used to pay off debts, 6 August 2006)

Jamie Hardie, president of the Society of Sexual Health Advisors, warned that these cuts were hindering efforts to improve the treatment of STIs for young people. He said record NHS deficits had led to cutbacks in the national chlamydia screening programme, which aims to encourage sexually active under-25-year-olds who would not otherwise come forward to be tested for the most common STI. Mr Hardie, a senior sexual health advisor in Newham, east London, said the programme, which was meant to cover the whole of England from April, was ‘being axed all over the place’.

Ann Furedi, chief executive of bpas, said: ‘This research showing frequent failure to use condoms or use them properly backs up our own surveys of women coming to bpas for termination of pregnancy. These women tell us that condom use can be patchy at all ages - not just among young people. Despite the best of intentions, many couples may not know exactly how to use them or they may not use them at all in the heat of the moment.

‘Since this is the reality of sexual behaviour across several age groups in the UK, a realistic approach to sexual healthcare has to include timely access to emergency contraception and abortion, and testing for STIs in a confidential, non-judgmental setting. Accessing these essential services must be made much simpler and easier - at the moment this can be hampered by lack of information or awareness, or in some parts of the country, “postcode providing” and NHS spending cutbacks in sexual health.’

See the survey results in full:

Bare All survey results 2006

Also read:

Third ‘have sex below legal age’, BBC, 13 August 2006

38% of under-25s have unprotected sex, Guardian Unlimited, 14 August 2006

Four in 10 under-24s risk infections by failing to use condom with new partner, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2006