Hong Kong students are watching more porn, but know less about sex
Family Planning Association urges schools to strengthen sex education
Hong Kong’s secondary school students are watching more pornography online, but their knowledge of sex has declined, a comprehensive new survey shows.
Its latest study on youth sexuality, the Family Planning Association found that 59 per cent of boys and 33 per cent of girls in secondary school had viewed explicit material, up about 5 percentage points from the last study in 2011, and revealed a decline in their sexual knowledge.
However, slightly fewer secondary school pupils were actually having sex.
One in five boys admitted looking at pornography more than 15 times in the past month, a trend the association’s executive director, Dr Susan Fan Yun-sun, called “worrying”.
With the survey highlighting a lack of awareness on sexual knowledge, especially about pregnancy, Fan urged educators to strengthen sex education in secondary schools.
“Pornography is so widely prevalent on the internet nowadays that we cannot simply put up barriers and ban young people from looking at it,” Fan said on Monday.
“We need to address the topics raised in pornography when we talk about sexual education, such as the degradation of women, violent sex and so on.”
The survey, conducted every five years since 1981, aims to monitor changing trends in attitudes and behaviour to sexuality. It polled 5,146 school pupils and young people aged 18 to 27.
On a series of question about conception, sexually transmissible infections and HIV/Aids, Form 3 to 6 students scored an average of eight correct answers out of 12, down from nine in 2011. Among Form 1 and 2 pupils, the average dropped from six to five.
Fan said the students performed poorly on pregnancy and conception and she urged schools to discuss these topics in more detail.
Two per cent of Form 1 and 2 pupils and 7 per cent of those in Form 3 to 6 had experienced sexual intercourse, slightly lower than the figure in 2011. The average age of their first encounter was unchanged at 15.
Among those aged 18 to 27, around 45 per cent had experienced sex, with 19 the mean age for their first encounter.
The study also showed a greater acceptance of sexual minorities, Fan said, while 15 per cent of schoolgirls and 13 per cent of boys were unsure about their orientation.
Around 50 per cent of students wanted to marry in the future, while 74 to 78 per cent said they would have children, up from 61 to 68 per cent in 2011.
“Young people are curious about sexual topics and there is a need to introduce comprehensive sexuality education early in schools,” Fan said.
