The Facts... without the Lecture
B4uDecide.ie is closing down at the end of May 2024.
Alternative sources of relationships and sexuality information and resources:
- For 16-25 year olds: SpunOut.ie is an information provision website, including relationships and sexuality issues.
- For 17+ year olds: Sexualwellbeing.ie is the HSE website that provides information and resources on a wide range of information such as consent, contraception, sexual transmitted infections, vaccinations and unplanned pregnancy
- For parents: The HSE’s ‘Making the ‘Big Talk’ many small talks’ series of booklets to help parents and children talk about relationships and sexuality is available online, and to order free of charge from healthpromotion.ie. HSE funded RSE workshops are available at npc.ie and ifpa.ie
- For teachers: Junior Cycle SPHE Resources are available to support the new 2023 SPHE specification , including the Relationship and Sexuality strand.
- For youthworkers: HSE funded training on relationship and sexuality issues is available at REAL U | Foroige and Tailored Training Courses – National Youth Council of Ireland
Girls, Boys and Pressure
Boys and girls say that they feel different types of pressure. We know this from research when Irish teenagers were interviewed.
Boys say that they feel pressure to act macho and tough and to be seen to want to have sex. But they are afraid that if they have sex, the girl will talk about it afterwards.
Girls say that they feel pressure to engage in sex when other members of their group of friends are having sex or if their boyfriend has had sex in a previous relationship. They also feel pressure to have a good reputation and not be labelled as a slut.
Boys and Girls feel pressure by the groups they hang around with. They care about their reputations and about what other people think about them. Both boys and girls are under pressure to do things that they are uncomfortable with.
The Age of Consent for sexual intercourse for heterosexual and homosexual sex is 17 for boys and girls.