BY JESSICA WAPNER
TEXT AND THE SINGLE GIRL: Many of the teens surveyed about sex on the internet said they couldn’t imagine abstaining from social media and even feared they’d be considered “weird” if they did.
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TECHNOLOGY is the new sex ed class for many teens. A recently published report, called “TECHsex 2017” and published by Youth+Tech+Sex, provides data and insights from a large national survey and small group interviews in seven U.S. cities. TECHsex 2017 takes an in-depth look at how—and why—teenagers access information online about sexual health. According to the report, many adolescents search online for sexual health information because the relevant education at school is insufficient and their parents refuse to discuss sex. Although nearly 500 of the 1,500 survey respondents ranked health care professionals as the best way to learn about sex, more than 300 said online search engines were better. In the focus groups, many participants said that the anonymity of a Google search was best for locating services and understanding the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases.