The Conversation

Sexual-Health Educators Are Being Censored on Social Media—Here's How You Can Help

We all know it's important to educate young people about safe sex practices—the U.S. continues to have one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the developed world, and 18- to 24-year-olds account for half of the 20 million new STD cases annually. It only makes sense then that organizations dedicated to teaching sexual health would rely on social media to reach their audience, considering that roughly 94 percent of teens are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or at least one other online social platform. And yet those very networks, as well as Internet giants Yahoo and Google, are reportedly censoring promoted messages from sex educators in accordance with company policies meant to block sexually explicit content. Bedsider, which describes itself as a free support network for birth control, is one of the organizations that has been censored by Twitter. As reported in The Atlantic, Bedsider was blocked following a series of quirky tweets relating to sexual health—one of which was "98 percent of women have used birth control. Not one of them? Maybe it's time to upgrade your sex life." While "safer sex education, HIV/STD awareness campaigns, and nonprescription contraceptives" can be promoted, such posts will usually only be

We all know it's important to educate young people about safe sex practices—the U.S. continues to have one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the developed world, and 18- to 24-year-olds account for half of the 20 million new STD cases annually. It only makes sense then that organizations dedicated to teaching sexual health would rely on social media to reach their audience, considering that roughly 94 percent of teens are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or at least one other online social platform. And yet those very networks, as well as Internet giants Yahoo and Google, are reportedly censoring promoted messages from sex educators in accordance with company policies meant to block sexually explicit content.

1993: 63 percent of men said they insisted on condoms with a new partner. Now: 71 percent of men say condoms are a must with a new partner.

Getty Images

Bedsider, which describes itself as a free support network for birth control, is one of the organizations that has been censored by Twitter. As reported in The Atlantic, Bedsider was blocked following a series of quirky tweets relating to sexual health—one of which was "98 percent of women have used birth control. Not one of them? Maybe it's time to upgrade your sex life." While "safer sex education, HIV/STD awareness campaigns, and nonprescription contraceptives" can be promoted, such posts will usually only be accepted if presented in a very straightforward, earnest way. In other words, kind of like a teacher in health class—and what young person is going to tune in to that on his or her own time?

Amber Madison, a therapist and sexual-health writer and educator (she penned the *Atlantic *piece), explains it this way: "Here's the problem: You have to compete for people's attention with Kim Kardashian's ass," she says. "There's so much funny, sexy information out there, [organizations] want to be able to make sexual-health information sexy, and that sould be OK. That's part of being sexually healthy."

One of the main issues, as Madison sees it, is that social media companies' policies are vague. "So many of the regulations say 'no sexually explicit content,' but that's completely up for interpretation by customer-service representatives," she says. "A lot of people will err on the side of caution and say, 'You are talking about sexual health, but it's still sexual, and we aren't going to allow it.'"

Now, Madison is coordinating a petition backed by several national organizations for executives at "Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, and any other platforms interested" to meet with sexual health educators. The goal of the meeting: Come up with a way for credible sexual-wellness groups to share their content across various social platforms, differentiating their content from, say, that of a pornographic site.

"We are really asking for a meeting," says Madison. "We are saying that we will go to them, we will pay for this, just give us a couple of hours of your time and an open mind."

Are you surprised by the censorship? Share in the comments! And if you want to support a meeting between tech executives and sexual-health educators, you can sign Madison's petition at change.org.