Sex::Tech: Using Technology to Reach Youth with HIV and Sexual Health Information

This week's post is by Jennie Anderson and Josie Halpern-Finnerty, AIDS.gov.

Last week at ISIS, Inc.'s Sex::Tech conference , we heard from leading voices in the field that we need to engage with our young audiences and use the tools they use to provide HIV and sexual health information.

As ISIS Executive Director Deb Levine said in her opening remarks, we must focus on being accessible, effective, relevant, innovative (in both our work and how we evaluate it), and ready to engage our communities in our work. A talented group of young African American students powerfully demonstrated this message in an interactive theater piece, BuckWorld One , which dealt with some of the factors affecting the choices young people make about sexual health.

We were excited to learn about a number of HIV and sexual health information sites for teens, such as TeenSource , Adolescencia.org.br , and Hard to Spell, Easy to Catch — many of which were developed by and for youth. We also heard about several new texting initiatives for teens, including REALtalk DC (a program of Metro TeenAIDS ) and “Text to Change,” an HIV education texting campaign in Uganda. We are only skimming the surface in this post, but these sessions and examples reinforced the power of using technology to communicate with youth about HIV and sexual health information.

Several presenters such as Dr. Brian Mustanski , Dr. Patrick Sullivan , and Dr. Jose Bauermeister , shared their research on new media interventions and Internet use among young men who have sex with men. In addition, Dr. Rachel Jones from Rutgers College of Nursing talked about her upcoming study to evaluate the effectiveness of a series of cell-phone soap-opera videos designed to reduce HIV sexual risk behavior in young women living in urban areas, based on her piloting of “A Story about Toni, Mike & Valerie.”

There were several cross-cutting messages that came through loud and clear in all the sessions (and which reminded us of Andrew Wilson's lessons learned from the SXSW conference):

1. Technology is here to stay.
2. We need to involve youth (or our other audiences) in planning and evaluation.
3. Partnerships are key (between community organizations, technical experts, clients, etc.).

Interested in learning more about Sex::Tech? If so, check out the #sextech Twitter conversation . Did you attend Sex::Tech? If so, what inspired you about the conference?

Comments

[Deb]

Josie, Jennie,
You two rock! I'm so impressed that you heard my opening remarks. The work you do at AIDS.gov is impressive, and I've heard many people say that your talk was very inspiring - especially how you all your tech work on a shoestring budget.
Thanks for your support.

Deb, a member of the mutual admiration society

[Hajo van Beijma]

Jennie and Josie,
Thanks, your presentation at Sex::Tech was great and looking forward in meeting you again! Keep up the great work at AIDS.gov!
Hajo

[Andrew Woodruff]

Hi There!

Wish we could have spent more time together during the conference. I loved your presentation and Sex::Tech wrap up here!

I'm also a member of the mutual admiration society. And... you all are on the west coast now! Let's say hi in person. :)

-Andy

[Domenic]

Jennie and Josie,

Great presentation at Sex Tech. Loved the red ribbon campaign you developed and launched and on no budget!!! When I told my colleagues about your work they loved it!! Keep up the amazing work.

Domenic

[Jeffrey McBride]

I'm glad to see that teens are getting involved with these websites. I feel it's important to have as much info available on AIDS as possible.

[Jenea]

I saw you guys at Sex:Tech! It was a great presentation :)