By all accounts, sex education is important.
But the UK’s Coventry University has raised eyebrows with the way they’re going about it, putting out a call last week for couples to get frisky on camera all in the name of safe sex. The pay to play: £400.
The effort is a part of the university’s Chance to Change campaign, a program that aims to reduce the number of STIs affecting young people aged 15 to 24 by increasing condom usage. According to those behind the project, the films will be “tastefully shot” by the safe-sex educational organization The Pleasure Project.
So the idea here is simple: promote safe sex by showing real couples getting it on. The key takeaway: contrary to what your buddies say, having sex with a condom can be sexy and fun.
The move has drawn fire from critics who question the project’s moral integrity. Why, they wonder, should a university be getting into the pornography business?
The answer: why not? We’ve come a long way from the old banana and a condom trick. Most students have been exposed to plenty of porn (sometimes multiple times a day). Indeed, that’s where most of them, rightly or wrongly, are learning about the birds and the bees. Educational porn videos may well be the most effective means yet of teaching people to be safe.
Alongside the videos, the campaign — aptly named “Wrapped” — will offer video clips of people talking about the benefits of condoms, as well as a sample pack of 12 rubbers to try out. According to the Coventry Telagraph, the program is only available to people over 18, and only after they order chlamydia self-testing kits from certain websites.
Here’s to safer, sexier sex.
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