Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that JLS condoms are really inappropriate?!

75 replies

lurcherlover · 18/11/2011 23:34

...saw them in Tesco earlier. Packs of 3, made by Durex, each pack with a pic of one of the JLS boys on. They do say "16+" on the pack but AIBU to think this is basically condoning underage sex, given that a) the average age of a JLS fan is 12 and b) if you choose your contraception based on whether or not it has a picture of a boyband member on the box you're probably not as mature as you could be?

OP posts:
thousandDenier · 19/11/2011 09:26

so if it says 16+ on the pack, does that mean a 14 year old trying to buy them would get refused?

I've always thought that it's quite a good test of finding out the most popular member. Whenever I've bought them I make a point of buying the one with the most left on the shelf as I feel a bit sorry for him Blush

TotemPole · 19/11/2011 09:34

Do all condom packs have 16+ on them?

lovetomatoes · 19/11/2011 10:58

YANBU
Agree with sevenfold: JLS are not a cool band, this campaign does not give the message that safe sex is cool because no cool kid or aspiring cool kid would buy anything with JLS on the box.
the comment about the little girl and the sweets says it all. JLS' target market is children.
Is a twelve year old having sex with a condom really "safe" sex? The failure rate for condoms is really low when used by people with a bit of practise and the common sense to use back-up contraception with . It's definitely the message we should be giving to teenagers.
But I don't think we're talking teenagers here. we're talking children.
re. the teacher and the 14 kids. I'm a teacher too and I kind of agree. No one's going to run out and have sex because they see a picture on a box of condoms. But it's one more chink. It's one more tiny message that everyone's doing it so why aren't you?

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 11:02

Who would you prefer on the box? Cliff Richard?
YABU - I think that it'll do more good than harm, and if even one child turns around and says "No, not without a condom" then it's worth it.

DownbytheRiverside · 19/11/2011 11:14

There is no legal age limit on buying condoms.

LifeIsButtercream · 19/11/2011 11:43

Are their faces on the condoms themselves too? That would be hilarious!

LynetteScavo · 19/11/2011 11:50

I've heard the ones with Aston on way outsell the ones with other band members on.

I find this worrying. (And makes me feel a bit sad for the other band members)

I do wonder if it's boys or girls who buys these though.

I am quite Confused hearing they have 16+ on them. Is that a government imposed thing? [concerned]

LynetteScavo · 19/11/2011 11:51

Weirdly, I wouldn't trust a JLS condom to stop be from getting pregnant.

Maybe that shows how very mature I am.

StealthPolarBear · 19/11/2011 11:59

..."JLS got me pregnant"...:o

StealthPolarBear · 19/11/2011 12:00

no age limit on condoms. I'd imagine these are just to provide a visual prompt to parents that they are not toys etc. I very much doubt an under 16 would be denied a sale.16+ rather than say 14+ because the legal age of consent is 16.

LordOfTheFlies · 19/11/2011 12:23

YY I've noticed the Aston ones selling better. Same as the dolls, they always had loads of one band member left (can't remember his name. It was the one who wasn't Aston, wasn't the one going out with her from the Saturdays, not the one who wore bowties and waistcoats.)

DD is 9yo and has "grown out of" her innocent crush on Aston.
Their fan base does seem very young, TBH.

Xales · 19/11/2011 12:25

I would imagine the 16+ is merely for the shop/manufacturers protecting themselves.

As JLS is preferred by slightly younger than 16 if they sold without the 16+ you would get precious parents saying 'my 13 year old Tiffany bought them to have sex it is terrible, they were aimed at her...'

So by plonking the 16+ on them they can say we are not aiming these at or condoning/promoting under aged sex.

tooearlytobeup · 19/11/2011 12:40

My 9 year old daughter pulled me over to them in Superdrug because she had seen sometinig JLS that she thought her 4 yr old sister who is a fan might like Sad so yes I think they are inappropriate

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 19/11/2011 13:28

carabos, there's no such thing as "too old for condoms." It's attitudes like that that have led to a ridiculous increase in STIs in the 40+ age group.

StealthPolarBear · 19/11/2011 15:13

Good point OLKN
Why are condoms so expensive, and yet also freely available? Why on earth doesn't the NHS subsidise them, rather than allowing them to be sold for a ridiculously high price, and then also handing them out in FPCs? Why aren't they £1 for a huge pack in supermarkets instead? That said, is there any evidence that peopple don't use them because of cost? I would love to do some research into that!

DoMeDon · 19/11/2011 15:22

YANBU - it's like some on here have forgotten what it's like to be a teenager!?! Sex should be for adults - 16 is too young emotionally for most DC. You can't pyshically stop DC from having sex but boyband condoms hardly send out the right message.

StealthPolarBear · 19/11/2011 15:24

they most definitely do - condoms are important, we endorse condoms.
Not we endorse sex - there is adifference

gamerwidow · 19/11/2011 15:30

Actually boyband condoms send out exactly the right message and hopefully will drum in the safe sex message from a young age. With all sexual diseases on the rise including syphilis which had all but died out it's good to have the safe sex message promoted by any means necessary.

DoMeDon · 19/11/2011 15:35

There is a difference to you, an adult, not so much to a child. The safe sex message is not getting through for a host of reasons, none of them involve JLS.

MardyArsedMidlander · 19/11/2011 15:45

Actually, if they don't obviously look like a packet of condoms that's a Good Thing as it may encourage girls to buy them.

And for all the parents who don't want to explain about condoms to their young children- I remember our local chemists in the 70s had Durex RoughRider prominently displayed!

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 16:36

Why are condoms so expensive, and yet also freely available?

Because the ones you get from a free clinic wouldn't fir on a pepperami, let alone my DP's extraordinarily large todger! And whenever I ask for "a larger size" the bloody woman in Family Planning gives me a rather withering look and tells me that the normal ones can stretch over a two-liter bottle of coke. Like fuck, can they. It nearly cut off the blood supply. I had to cut the damn thing off!

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 16:36

fit* not fir!

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 16:37

And by "cut the damn thing off" I, of course, mean the condom. NOT my DP's trousersnake!

StealthPolarBear · 19/11/2011 16:41

ouch
Next time go in with a bottle of coke and ask her to demonstrate. Make sure it's empty to see the pressure.
That said, surely there is a middle ground

StealthPenguin · 19/11/2011 20:30

I gave up after a while and went on the pill. Of course, that didn't exactly work out well - I was pregnant before the first-months course ran out!

Implant is the best!

But seriously though, any kind of promotion towards protection is a good thing.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page