In The News, 2006

USA TODAY
By Janet Kornblum
May 7, 2006

Text messages give '411' on teen sex

SAN FRANCISCO — FYI: if ur yng and wnt the 411 on sex, just txt ;-).

San Francisco just launched the nation's first text-messaging program aimed to shoot instant cellphone messages to sexually active young people seeking advice about sex and health. The service focuses on everything from what to do "if ur condom broke" to whom to call "if ur feeling down ... like u wanna xcape ur life."

Written in the abbreviated style of text messaging, SexInfo is open to anyone with cellphone text messaging. But it is aimed at sexually active 12- to 24-year-olds in San Francisco, especially blacks, whose rates of sexually transmitted diseases have increased in the past year, says Jacqueline McCright of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Kids, McCright says, "often do not get accurate information from their friends, and many times their parents don't discuss sexual issues with them. This is a way that they can get quick, easy information confidentially."

The service, based on a London program that launched in 2004, provides instant, automated responses to specific questions about pregnancy, HIV, sex and depression. Kids send a text message to 36617 (Metro PCS users use a different number) with the word "SexInfo." They are then sent a list of codes from which to choose.

"I think kids will use it," says Alexis McBride, 16, a junior at John O'Connell High School in San Francisco, who says she sends "about 100" text messages a day. "Kids text a lot," she adds.

Organizers expect other cities to pick up on the program and are hoping it develops into a national service where live operators answer text messages in real time.

"We launched San Francisco as a small pilot to show what the possibilities are," says Deb Levine, executive director of Internet Sexuality Information Services (ISIS), the non-profit organization hired to run SexInfo. "It's very clear that public health advocates are watching San Francisco to see what we're doing — I have gotten e-mails from colleagues across the country."

The city health department paid ISIS $40,000 to develop SexInfo and will spend $20,000 to market it and about $2,500 a month to maintain it. Messages direct youths to San Francisco health services.

Jennifer Hartstein, psychologist with Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., worries that text responses lack detail and will help teens avoid parental involvement, giving them one more way that they can keep secrets from parents. Still, she calls the service "a wonderful and innovative response" to the problem of sexually transmitted diseases among teens.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
April 26, 2006

Safer sex info goes high-tech Health department answers questions via text messages

The condom broke. You think you could be pregnant or been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease.

So you turn to your cell phone for help: "if u hve sex, u can get an STD + not know it. Chlamydia, gonorrhea=no symptoms most of the time Dropin get chcked FREE," reads the text message tip, followed by an address and hours of a health clinic.

This week, San Francisco becomes the first city in the country to direct safer sex advice to young people through text messages on their cell phones. Michelle Irving, a 22-year-old peer educator with the city's Department of Public Health, said young people are constantly sending text messages, and she thinks they'll respond to the privacy and immediacy of getting advice on their cell phones.

"A lot of teenagers don't go to clinics, and they're afraid to ask questions. Text messaging, it's no one's business but yours," Irving said. "They don't have to talk to someone if they think they're pregnant or their condom broke. It's confidential, so no one has to feel embarrassed or humiliated."

Users send the message "sexinfo" to one of two phone numbers set up by the health department and within seconds get a reply asking them to clarify their question by choosing one of several options, including what to do about a broken condom and how to respond to pressures to have sex.

The whole back-and-forth process takes one or two minutes, and most messages ends with a phone number to call for further help. The program is designed to be teen-friendly, and the messages are written in text message lingo that's familiar to young people.

"We wanted to design a program that would reach young people with the technology they use most often," said Jacqueline McCright, community-based STD services manager at the Department of Public Health. "Most youth get their information from their friends. ... They're winging it, trying to figure it out for themselves. We thought this would be a good way to get them information that's reliable, quick, nonjudgmental and private."

The text-messaging program, which is directed at young people ages 12 to 24, is modeled after a similar program in London. It will cost about $2,500 a month to run the automated program in San Francisco. The San Francisco program comes in response to climbing STD rates among young people in the city -- including a particularly alarming 100 percent increase in gonorrhea cases among black teenagers last year. The Public Health Department spent a year brainstorming ways to reach young people who weren't getting the information they needed from more traditional resources, such as parents, schools or even community health clinics for teenagers.

San Francisco 15-year-old Mattie Loyce said she used to get her sex education from a radio program geared to young people. But as she's gotten older, she's learning most of what she knows about sex from "experience and friends."

She's on her cell phone all the time, she said, and "it'd be cool" to be able to send a text message for safer sex advice. Her friend Chiarra Tillers, 16, agreed, especially if the information available is accurate and reliable.

"There are a lot of myths, things that aren't true, that you hear about," Tillers said. "If what they tell you is true, that's great."

The Public Health Department isn't alone in relying on new technology to reach a younger, at-risk audience about sex. Planned Parenthood Golden Gate recently began a new campaign under the slogan "safe is sexy," including ads on MTV and MySpace.

Planned Parenthood also is looking into a text-messaging program of its own that would allow patients to make appointments, or receive reminders, by sending text messages on their cell phones.

Planned Parenthood's ad campaign has come under attack by some conservative groups that promote abstinence education. In particular, conservative organizations have denounced the focus on teenagers, including a Planned Parenthood referral program that gives patients free movie tickets and enters them in a contest to win an iPod if they encourage a friend to make an appointment.

But Therese Wilson, senior vice president at Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, said it's critical that young people have as much unfettered access to safer sex information as they can get. And luring them with new technology is a method that already seems to work.

"We're trying to keep up with the technology because it's very evident that younger audiences, that's how they communicate," Wilson said. "We strive to be very smart about our advertising dollars, and I think we do a good job of that."

Text number

To receive text messages from the Public Health Department about safer sex, send the message "sexinfo" to (917) 957-4280 on MetroPCS phones or 36617 on all other cell phones. More information about the text message program is available online at www.sextextsf.org.

http://sfgate.com

"If u hve sex, u can get an STD + not know it ... get chcked FREE"

Find yourself tsk-tsking at all those teens laser-focused on text messaging from their cellphones when they could be playing outside or, say, talking to each other? Turns out some of them -- in San Francisco, anyway -- may be getting some essential, private information about their sexual health.

As today's Chronicle reports, San Francisco this week became the first U.S. city to make safer-sex advice available to young people via their cellphones. "Users send the message 'sexinfo' to one of two phone numbers set up by the health department," the article explains, "and within seconds get a reply asking them to clarify their question by choosing one of several options, including what to do about a broken condom and how to respond to pressures to have sex." Most interactions end with a phone number to call for more information.

The "SexInfo" program, modeled on a similar initiative in London, was developed by the San Francisco Department of Public Health with input from teen focus groups and a consortium of community health organizations. According to a DPH press release, it is primarily a response to dramatically rising rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia among San Francisco's African-American youth. "Gonorrhea puts young women at increased risk for infertility and other serious medical problems," said Jeffrey D. Klausner, director of STD prevention and control for the DPH. "In both women and men, gonorrhea increases the risk of getting HIV. SexInfo is remarkably innovative, timely and addresses a key way young people today access information. It will make it easier for young people to get tested and treated quickly for these types of infections."

Makes sense to me: no hiding your browser history from nonsupportive parents, fewer potentially overheard phone calls -- in short, a minimum of roadblocks between teens and information, and medical attention, they may need fast. Let's hope other cities soon follow suit.

(FYI: From MetroPCS phones, text SEXINFO to 917-957-4280; from all other phones, text SEXINFO to 36617.)

http://www.salon.com

CBS 5
Kim Mulvihill, M.D., Reporting
April 25, 2006

Sex Ed In A Text Message

(CBS 5) SAN FRANCISCO In the era of cell phones, one way to grab a kid's attention may be through a text message. So in the first program of its kind in the nation, San Francisco is using text messages to deliver accurate information about sex.

Research shows almost two-thirds of young adults use cells phones to text messages.

With the push of a few buttons, teens can gain access to information about sexual health and answers to some very common questions about sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

It's a new information and referral service called SexInfo

"They can text, get information, and delete it," said Jacqueline McCright of the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health. "No one has to know they're getting this info."

The service was developed with a consortium of community groups in response to the rising rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia among African American youth in the city.

One survey shows most kids don't know what chlamydia is.

"That told us they're walking around not having a clue about STDs," McCright said. "They didn't know about symptoms, and the main thing: there are no symptoms."

"SexInfo" is a new information and referral service for San Francisco youth. For more information on what it contained in the SexInfo text messages, visit: www.sextextsf.org.

For additional information, visit: www.sextextsf.org.

For additional information, visit: www.sfcityclinic.org.

"SexInfo" was developed by a San Francisco-based nonprofit group called Internet Sexuality Information Services or ISIS. To check out their work, visit: www.isis-inc.org.

This new service was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and developed with a consortium of community organizations including New Generation Health Center, Bayview Hunters Point Foundation; UCSF Division of Adolescent Medicine, Cole Street Youth Clinic, the Larkin Street Medical Clinic and Balboa Teen Health Center.

http://cbs5.com

LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Daniel Costello, Times Staff Writer
April 4, 2006

Health Officials Cast Web at STDs

When it comes to sex, the Web has a dark side: It helps people hook up with strangers, fueling the spread of disease.

But recently, health authorities in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities have been trying to use the Internet for healthier purposes.

They are hiring counselors to visit sex chat rooms, advertising often provocative prevention messages, arranging testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and even helping to notify — via online postcards — the partners of people found to be infected.

One site, itrick.org, appears to be the 21st-century version of the little black book. It lets people keep track of all their sexual partners — including height, weight, photos and contact information — and can be used to send out a mass e-mail if a user learns that he has a transmissible disease.

Some privately operated websites are helping people select mates according to whether they use condoms or not, or whether they are HIV positive or negative (a practice known as "sero-sorting"). Last week, sero-sorting was cited by AIDS agencies in San Francisco as one possible explanation for why the city's HIV infection rates are estimated to have dropped 10% in the last five years.

"Clearly, we are at the beginning of tapping this technology" in our favor, said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're starting to find that we can use the Internet to help reach people in ways we couldn't otherwise."

"The Internet removes the embarrassment factor, so people can honestly talk about what they are doing and what their risks are," said Deborah Levine, director of the nonprofit Internet Sexuality Information Services, which has teamed with half a dozen U.S. cities to promote STD prevention online.

Because disease prevention online is so new, it is unclear how well it works. But that isn't stopping innovative attempts at online prevention in both the public and private sectors.

A growing number of websites are aimed at the general population, but most have focused primarily on gay and bisexual men.

Last fall, the CDC reported that the rate of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men, which had been stable for the last few years, rose 8% over the previous year. A separate report issued by the agency showed a 29% rise in syphilis over the last four years in the same group.

Research shows that people who meet on the Web are likelier to engage in risky behavior and to have a sexually transmitted disease. A recent study found that nearly a quarter of 587 gay men in Los Angeles diagnosed with syphilis had met one or more sexual partners on the Internet around the time they were infected. Two-thirds of the men who met partners on the Internet were also infected with HIV.

"Hooking up online has become many people's single biggest sexual outlet, more than bars or clubs or bathhouses," said Levine, whose nonprofit group, with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, recently opened the website hookinguponline.org to promote safe sex online.

Now the Internet is the place some people turn to after acquiring an infection. After he was diagnosed with HIV two years ago, Ron Loggi eventually found Poz.com, a website for men who have the virus.

The 35-year-old social work student from Los Angeles began dating, and over the past year, has been in a relationship.

"I prefer to sero-sort," he said, using the in-vogue verb. "It's easier and you don't have to worry about transmission."

A 45-year-old information and technology manager in San Francisco, turned to the Internet for a different reason: to ensure that he stays HIV-negative.

Last year, he started using a website, which was set up by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, that allows users to download lab slips on their computers, then anonymously visit a testing center. Days later, they can log on to the site for the results. He said he had gotten negative results each of the three times he used the service.

"Anything that gets people who are sexually active to get tested is a good idea to me," he said.

For people who learn that they are infected, Los Angeles County unveiled inspotla.org, a site that allows them to anonymously notify sex partners that they too should be tested. At the website, which is co-sponsored by the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, users can choose from six electronic postcards to send to their partners.

Some sites cater to specific groups. On Valentine's Day, AIDS Project Los Angeles introduced mysexycity.com, an interactive site aimed at young gay men that allows them to practice navigating risky sexual situations with animated characters. Unsafe choices lead characters to become infected. The site has attracted a quarter of a million visitors in the last six weeks, the agency said.

Existing sex sites are providing entree for AIDS educators. Manhunt.net, a popular gay sex site with 600,000 registered users across the country, recently began providing free advertising space to nearly 100 public health agencies and allowing counselors to answer sex-related questions.

Jeff Bailey, director of education at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, said counselors identify themselves on such sites as Manhunt.net and myspace.com with online names such as letstalkaboutsex and askmeabouthealth, and then pass along tips.

"The traditional outreach of us going out into the field with condoms isn't working," said Bailey, adding that online outreach can be much cheaper.

Of course, too much online prevention could turn people off. What's more, online efforts across the country remain uneven and disconnected.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed online prevention programs in eight cities.

It found that cities such as Atlanta and Miami trailed others such as Los Angeles and San Francisco — sometimes because of practical obstacles such as firewalls that keep city employees from accessing sex sites on their computers.

In the end, though, patients such as Loggi of San Francisco have very simple, traditional advice for people who want to ensure they don't contract a disease.

"Just wear a condom," he said. "Don't end up like me."

http://www.aegis.com/news

ISIS Projects

Contact Us

Email: info@isis-inc.org

ISIS, Inc.
409 13th St., 14th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612-2607
510-835-9400
510-835-9402 (fax)
877-665-2250 (toll-free)