Get The Facts is a likeable near-peer video series from the Department of Health in Western Australia. The aim: normalising conversations around sex, sexual health and respectful relationships for 13- to 17-year-olds.
In each video – up to 4 minutes long – teens enact scenarios at school then sit and talk to each other, and also straight to camera, to get facts across.
Occasionally their advice is tongue-in-cheek: “I wait till I am introduced to my partner’s family and we’re getting dinner together and I wait till her father’s talking, then I cut him off. I say: ‘Enough! Listen, there’s something I’d like to discuss…’”).
ABOUT TALKING OPENLY ABOUT SEX
“You want to make sure you’re both aware of what each other wants and you’re in it together” – Gabe
• “It’s about being nice to each other and calm and enjoying the situation” – Matilda
ABOUT SEXTING
“You’d hope it wouldn’t happen for the same reason you’d hope you wouldn’t arrive at school naked” – Gabe
ABOUT CONDOMS
“She wants to have unsafe sex”
“What – are you insane?!”
“I mean she wants to have sex on roller skates”
“Oh. With or without a condom?”
ABOUT PORN
“If you try to apply what you see in porn in the real world, you’d probably hurt yourself trying” – Maya
• “Porn is some weird, strange theatre that looks nothing like real life. They’re getting paid to look like they’re enjoying themselves. Porn sometimes makes it seem like you have sex at someone but really it’s something you do with someone. It’s a partnership” – Gabe
• “In porn there’s none of that sort of bonding relationship or discussion of feelings you might have after having sex, especially after the first time” – Maxine
ABOUT PUBERTY
“Surprisingly enough, my parents were actually really good at dealing with me and my emotional states. Especially my mum. She was like: ‘It’s OK. I understand what she’s going through. We’ll just let it fly’” – Matilda
“Teenagers who can speak to each other and their parents about sex and puberty are less likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy or get an STI – a sexually transmitted infection – and they’re more likely to delay becoming sexually active,” says Lisa Bastian, manager of the health department’s sexual health and blood-borne virus programme.
Judging by these videos, teens who speak openly are also likely to come across as pretty easygoing…
Watch the Get The Facts videos here