Dear Editor,

Giving me an R6 motorcycle and telling me not to speed on highway 2000 but to obey the 50 miles per hour speed limit is setting me up for a traffic ticket.

In much the same way, giving condoms to the children in schools is detrimental to their proper social and academic development. Our policymakers should consider the following:

Children respond to incentives and increased moral degradation. , Granting an incentive towards sexual immorality among our adolescents cannot be one of the contributing factors to our aspiration of a better future.

Early sexual activity among children holds high risks. A study done by Dr Jennings Bryant, a distinguished professor at the University of Alabama, revealed that “more than 66 per cent of boys and 40 per cent of girls reported wanting to try some of the sexual behaviours they saw in the media (and by high school, many had done so), which increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies”.

Early sexual activity among children holds high risks. A study done by Dr Jennings Bryant, a distinguished professor at the University of Alabama, revealed that “more than 66 per cent of boys and 40 per cent of girls reported wanting to try some of the sexual behaviours they saw in the media (and by high school, many had done so), which increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies”.

Now, the distribution of condoms in schools, along with the explicit sexual material that children are already exposed to through various media, are not very conducive to the message of abstinence we are trying to promote.

According to heritage.org, children who abstain from sex are less likely to:

* get depressed,

* attempt suicide,

* contract STDs,

* have children out of wedlock,

* be impoverished, or

* depend on welfare programmes.

Instead, they enjoy stable and long lasting marriages. It is now clear to us that the messages we give to the children are, to an extent, inconsistent, because while we promote abstinence we are also attempting to have condoms distributed in the schools.

I suggest that, as much as possible, we teach the children about sex and sexuality through the school curriculum, but do not promote casual sexual activity..

Shane Brown

shanebrownpm@gmail.com