Condoms for Kids – Teens, Actually
A Swiss condom manufacturer has begun making smaller condoms targeting the adolescent/young teen market. They say it was in response to request for smaller sizes because the larger ones were not providing adequate protection for the smaller, not-yet-fully developed teens.
According to this ABC news article, Kid-Sized Condoms: Company Markets Contraceptive for 14-Year-Olds, the manufacturer, Lamprecht AG, was approached by the AIDS awareness organization AIDS-Hilfe Switzerland. Their goal was to produce and market a condom for a younger age group.
Part of the reason for the development of the new condom, she added, was a survey performed by the German magazine Bravo. Among 13,000 respondents age 14 to 20, the magazine reported, 25 percent of the them said standard condoms were too big.
The question is, will they get used? The manufacturers hope so, but there is debate as to whether this type of targeted condom is more about promoting teen sexual activity than preventing pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Eli Coleman, chair in Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Program in Human Sexuality in Minneapolis is quoted in the article as saying that offering these condoms is along the same line as offering the HPV vaccines to young women who are not yet sexually active, in the hopes of preventing the spread of genital warts.
Currently, these condoms are only available in Switzerland and there don’t seem to be any plans to introduce them to North America.
What do you think?
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Image: PhotoXpress.com
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Call me old fashion or call me a mom but I do not think this is a wise idea. This is like telling ALL kids at this point it is fine to have sex just toss this on first. That’s all I need is my soon to be teen boy to say mom they made condoms for us to use, can I go get some now? I can only imagine the commericials for this.