Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are growing alarmingly in Spain: they have increased by 84% in the last 5 years. Young people are the ones who experience this type of pathology the most. Last year, 36,983 cases of chlamydia were diagnosed (20.7% more than two years earlier); 34,401 cases of gonorrhea (an increase of 42.6%); and 10,879 cases of syphilis (an increase of 24.1%). These are data provided by the annual report "Epidemiologic Surveillance of Sexually Transmitted Infections"of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.
Such alarming numbers should prompt public opinion to reflect on what is happening and how did we get here? Undoubtedly, lifestyles promoted through social networks or television series can explain an important part of the problem. That is why it is more necessary than ever to offer affective-sex education in schools that gives tools to children, teenagers and parents! to deal with this phenomenon. This is what the recent campaign of the Spanish Ministry of Equality seems to be trying to do, whose posters and advertisements read as follows:
"Let's talk about pornography. 90% of adolescents consume pornography, starting at age 8. Even so, 90% of parents believe that their children do not watch pornography".
It is undoubtedly a very interesting proposal, although there is still a long way to go to denounce all the causes that have brought us to this point: sexual liberation without limits, hedonistic culture, attacks on parental authority, etc. As Juan Manuel de Prada says, we cannot "raise thrones to the causes and scaffolds to the consequences".
Addressing all the causes of a problem is not easy. This is well known to epidemiologists, who have been explaining for years that the promotion of condom use increases unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. To understand this phenomenon, it is enough to read the instructions on a box of condoms. There you can see that they fail between 4% and 7%. And since the use of condoms is advertised as having "safe sex", this false security leads to an increase in the number of relationships and promiscuity with different partners. In other words, the chances of getting pregnant or contracting an infection are multiplied.
Hopefully, public opinion will take steps to improve affective-sex education. For the time being, the debate on the pornography seems to be here to stay and can be said to be "mainstream" if it has been bought by the Ministry of Equality.
Editor of Omnes. Previously he has collaborated in various religious and cultural media. He has been a high school philosophy teacher for 18 years.
