A Warwickshire County Council-managed website that aims to answer questions from young people in Warwickshire about sex and relationships was visited more than 175,000 times last year.
http://www.respectyourself.info/ the site of the ‘Respect Yourself’ campaign developed by local organisations including Warwickshire County Council and the NHS, provides practical information on topics such as contraception, puberty and local sexual health services.
The website’s anonymous question and answer feature, where visitors can ask experts anything they like without judgment, has proved particularly popular and received almost 22,000 views.
The section has seen an increase in enquiries from young people seeking advice about relationships and emotional health – leading to the development of a new interactive ‘relationship health checker’ feature for the site.
Based on successful strategies employed in the Netherlands, where the teenage pregnancy rate is the lowest in Europe, Respect Yourself’s ‘sex-positive’ approach acknowledges that young people are naturally curious about sex – something the organisations behind the campaign believe is evident from the website’s popularity.
Etty Martin, sexual health commissioner at Warwickshire County Council, said: “It would be naïve to think there is no desire amongst young people to find out about sex, but what has been very encouraging is that they have been wanting this information in the context of having healthy, happy relationships.
“Respect Yourself encourages young people to feel comfortable exploring and discussing sex and relationship issues. Treating them with respect and providing them with the information they really want, rather than what adults might think they need to know, is really important.”
Since launching in June 2012, the Respect Yourself website has been visited more than 335,000 times, with more than 120,000 of these visits coming from mobile phones of tablets.
The success has earned the campaign a nomination in the Young People’s Sexual Health Service/Project category at the 2014 UK Sexual Health Awards, to be held in March 2014.
Councillor Bob Stevens, Portfolio Holder for Health, said:
“We are very pleased that the Respect Yourself Website continues to grow in popularity and is making a difference to the lives and sexual health of young people across the county and that it’s innovation and informal approach have been recognised for a national sexual health award.”
