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
Early Sex – The Evidence
Research with 7,441 Irish people found the following:
- The majority of young people have sex for the first time at age 17 or older. 21% of girls and 30% of boys have sex before age 17.
- Girls and boys who had sex under age 17 were more likely to say that they regretted it, that it was not a natural follow-on in their relationship and that they were not in love with the person.
- Girls and boys who had sex under age 17 were also more likely to say that they never had sex with that person again.
- Girls who had sex under age 17 were over 70% more likely to have a crisis pregnancy in their lifetime.
- Boys and girls who had sex under age 17 were twice as likely to get a sexually transmitted infection in their lifetime.
- Young people who have sex before 17 are less likely to use contraception.
The research findings are from research reports published by the Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme. To read more about this research, visit the Research Reports section on the sexualwellbeing.ie website.