Sex exhibition provides sex ed to youth
( 2002-10-08 08:56 ) (8 )

Mr. Huo took his 11-year-old son to an on-going sex education exhibition held in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"I wanted to talk to him about sex but really didn't know where to begin. The timing is good while visiting an exhibition like this," he said.

In the past two months the exhibition has attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

Combining pictures with video-audio equipment, it aims to promote people's knowledge about sex and protect them from pornography and sexually transmitted diseases. And to the delight of the sponsors, the exhibition has also become a good means for educating youngsters about sex.

China now has more than 300 million young people aged from 10 to 24. Traditionally, Chinese people have long regarded sex as a taboo subject and sex education has almost been non-existent. In the vacuum, many people, especially youngsters have tried to get information from porn videos and books. Sex-related crime by youngpeople has risen in recent years.

The scenario is now changing. At the beginning of this year, the first set of sex education textbook was published in Harbin. In June, the first sex education VCD targeting primary school students was also released.