One in two young Italians do not use condoms

Only 54 percent of young Italians between the ages of 11 and 24 who have already had sexual intercourse use condoms because they believe they reduce pleasure, and this is despite the fact that 94 percent of respondents indicate it as the most appropriate method to use to avoid pregnancy and avoid contracting sexual diseases. Revealing these worrying data is research conducted by the Youth and Sexuality Observatory 2022 and promoted by Durex, which points out that although more than 4 thousand cases of sexually transmitted infections are reported each year, only one in two young people choose condoms, and the figures decrease significantly in parallel with the young age of the sample examined by the study. Thus we find that 14 percent did not use any contraceptive in the last sexual intercourse, particularly in the 11 to 14 age group, but 29 percent claim, instead, to have used the morning-after pill. Among them, 18 percent used it once, 11 percent used it several times, and in the 11-14 age group, 12 percent used it more than three times. The research also reports the number of those who required termination: 6 percent. This, doing some brief calculations, indicates that 1.16 percent of the total number of girls and 3.3 percent of the boys surveyed have resorted to abortion.

Why do young Italians not use condoms? Among the main reasons is the lack of sex education that fuels misinformation. Young people approach their first sexual experiences without reference points. What they know or think they know they find on the Internet, learn from friends and rarely within their own family, but not at school, from qualified educators. Italy, in fact, is one of the few European countries that does not include the teaching of sex education as a compulsory subject due to the interference of conservative political currents and pressure from Catholic movements. Moreover, when, it is treated in schools it is generally focused on the biological aspects, neglecting the social and emotional ones. As many experts in the field point out, rather than sex education one should speak of sex-affective education and address the management of emotions, expectations and the body in a love relationship. It is well established that good sexuo-affective education can have a positive effect not only on reducing unwanted pregnancies, teenage abortions, decreasing sexually transmitted infections, HIV, sexual abuse or cases of homophobia, but also on broader social issues such as gender equality, human rights.