The Compulsory Sexuality Education (CSE) mobile application has been released by Mahidol University to help educate young people with hearing impairments on how to protect themselves against unwanted advances and pregnancy, as well as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual violence.
The app, whose content was developed by Asst Prof DrKanokwanTharawan, lecturer at the Institute for Population and Social Research of Mahidol University, is intended for youths aged 10 and over.
DrKanokwan has a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of California and has taught sex education for more than 20 years. She said the software was inspired by a lecture she gave on the subject that was attended by deaf students who faced problems such as sexual assault, unplanned pregnancies and STIs. One particular issue she noticed was the low rate of literacy and knowledge of sign language among many deaf attendees, which effectively limited their options for accessing sexual education.
The app, which relies solely on graphics and images, consists of five primary subjects covering sexual orientation; safe sex practices and products; unplanned pregnancies; STIs; and violence against women.
A major obstacle DrKanokwan said she faced while developing the app was Apple Inc’s App Store, which refused to allow the use of images or graphics depicting sexuality on apps made available on its platform. Despite numerous attempts to contact the company and explain the situation, the Apple Store continued to ban the CSE app, forcing DrKanokwan to remove much of its content.
She noted that she encountered no such issues with the Google Play store and says she hopes to achieve her goal of educating 24,000 deaf youths nationwide.
The CSE app is now available for both Android and iOS devices.(NNT)
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