Viewing Sexuality as Normal and Healthy and Treating Young People as a Valuable Resource
Advocates for Youth envisions a society that views sexuality as normal
and healthy and treats young people as a valuable resource.
The core values of Rights, Respect, Responsibility® (3Rs) animate
this vision—
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IGHTS: Youth
have rights to accurate and complete sexual
health information, confidential reproductive and
sexual health services, and a secure stake in the
future.
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ESPECT: Youth
deserve respect. Today, young people are
largely perceived as part of the problem. Valuing
young people means they are part of the solution
and are included in developing programs and policies
that affect their well-being.
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ESPONSIBILITY: Society
has the responsibility to provide
young people with the tools they need to
safeguard their sexual health, and young
people have the responsibility to protect
themselves from too-early childbearing and
sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including
HIV.
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In such a society, parents will play an essential role in helping young
people to make healthy, responsible choices. Communication and partnership
within the family will be the norm. Communities will fulfill their responsibilities,
providing young people with a secure stake in the future and the information
and services youth need to protect their health and save their lives.
Adults will respect and support youth's right to act responsibly.
Advocates' vision is informed by lessons learned during annual study tours
that explore how Germany, France,
and the Netherlands achieved significant reductions in teen pregnancies, births,
abortions, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In these countries,
governments and society view accurate information and confidential sexual health
services, not merely as a need of youth, but as their right. Addressing youth's
right to information and services, in turn, depends upon society's accepting
adolescents' sexual development as normal and healthy.
The Dutch, Germans, and French spend far less time and effort than Americans
in trying to prevent young people from having sex and more time and
effort in educating and empowering young people to behave
responsibly when they eventually decide to have sex. Educators, health care
providers, and parents collaborate in providing sexual health information.
Parents' most imperative message is not that teens' sexual development is a
problem but rather that sexual intimacy should not occur until adolescents
are ready and only within a caring, mutually respectful relationship.
Click here to learn more about family and community
influences on adolescent sexuality in the U.S. and Europe.
Click here to return to the Parents' Sex Ed Center home
page.
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