SEXUAL EDUCATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: INNOVATIONS AND LIMITS

Introduction: The main international guidelines on sex education agree on the need to increase the number of interventions in schools and on the community, in formal and non-formal contexts. The suggestion is to start as soon as possible, with objectives and methods appropriate for the age, promoting the development of critical thinking with participatory and personalized tools. Methods: This report will discuss limits and innovations based on a review of the literature. Results: There are effective sexual education projects and programs, but they are rarely put into practice because of the prohibitive costs, long implementation times, limited number of people reachable (class group) and the need for highly specialized educators. In this sense, Tech-based interventions are a possible resource to face the limits. Social Media is the language with which children express themselves among themselves and above-mentioned limits. Regarding sexual health, digital natives are less used to talk face-to-face (among themselves and with adults) and are used to gather the information they need on the Net. In the literature, Interactive Digital Interventions (IDIs) define those "digital elements that provide information on sexual health, support decision making, elicit behavioural changes and provide emotional support". These include interactive video games, smartphone & mHealth applications, Social Medias, educational videos, online discussion groups (forums, chats), technology-driven peer-leader recruitment and education. Conclusions: A good IDI should consider the users reached, evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, be adaptable to various contexts, be accessible to educators and significant adults and be sustainable over time. Digital and Social Medias can be effective tools for sexual education, especially if matched with interventions on emotions.