Young now know less about sex - but have it more often

Young people in Hong Kong are more ignorant about sex but far more sexually active than 10 years ago, according to a survey by the Family Planning Association.

The Youth Sexuality Study 2001, which interviewed nearly 6,000 youngsters aged 12 to 27, was carried out in October last year.

The findings show that 72.4 per cent of boys and 83 per cent of girls in Form Three to Form Seven were aware that having more sexual partners would increase the risk of Aids transmission - a drop from 88.7 per cent of boys and 97.4 per cent of girls in 1991. But 23.6 per cent of boys and 16.1 per cent of girls believed Aids could only be contracted through homosexual sex - compared with 12.3 per cent and 14.5 per cent 10 years ago.

A similar rise has been seen in the number of people who incorrectly answered questions about transmission of venereal diseases.

Despite their poor knowledge, most young people believe they know enough about sex - 62 per cent of young men and half of young women said their sex knowledge was 'sufficient or highly sufficient' - compared with no more than 45 per cent of people five years ago.

The survey also shows 8.7 per cent of schoolboys and 5.2 per cent of schoolgirls aged between 14 and 18 have had sexual experiences, compared with only 1.2 per cent of boys and 0.2 per cent of girls 10 years ago.

The number of people between 18 and 27 having pre-marital sex has also increased, from nearly 27 per cent for men and 19 per cent for women 15 years ago to nearly 40 per cent for men and more than 30 per cent of women last year.