A new report that looks at the sex lives of Canadian youth suggests more needs to be done to encourage safe sex, including reversing a decrease in condom use. In a survey conducted by Angus Reid for the charity LetsStopAIDS, 24 per cent of participants said they use condoms “all the time.” That’s compared to 53 per cent who said they always used condoms in 2020.
One in five said they’d never used a condom. LetsStopAIDS released Tuesday the results of its annual national survey of more than 1,100 Canadians aged 18 to 24. Six per cent of survey respondents said they were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection or HIV in the previous six months – up two per cent from 2023.
And seven in 10 sexually active youth who experienced unsafe or uncomfortable sexual encounters involving condom negotiation said they did not seek help. The organization’s founder and president, Shamin Mohamed Jr., says proactively discussing how condoms can prevent STIs and HIV would better prepare youth, and “in turn help Canada have a lower STI rate, a lower HIV rate.
” He highlights barriers he says are standing in the way: sex-ed in schools is outdated and health-care providers aren’t discussing HIV testing with young patients. Sex education in the classroom has become a political battleground in Canada, he says, such as in Alberta, where the government has proposed a law that would make parents opt-in for their kids to be in sex-ed. Addressing sex-ed curriculums across the count.
