Safe sex advice

[Karwomannghia]

My ds nearly 16 has his first boyfriend, I was wondering whether we should give some sort of safe sex advice and what should it be? Or just a general we can help if you want to talk about anything type situation. I don’t want to be hideously embarrassing or ott.

I have very little advice on how to broach... more or less any topic, really... with teenagers & not be hideously embarrassing or ott in their eyes! But in terms of what to advise, it's mostly going to be the same advice you'd give ds if he had a girlfriend: he doesn't need to worry about getting anyone pregnant in his relationship, but he should still be up on the basics of condom use, STI testing, and consent. If you're finding it awkward to talk to him directly, or think he'd be more comfortable researching some stuff on his own, Scarleteen is a pretty useful collection of sex-ed resources specifically geared at teens and young adults: I've linked their "safer sex" tag there, but they've also got advice on stuff like figuring out whether you're emotionally ready for sex, or recognising when a relationship may be abusive, plus well-moderated message boards where he can pose any questions that he's too embarrassed to bring to his mum & be answered by trained sex educators. A few friends of mine who work with teens speak very highly of it as a resource they can direct those teens towards, so I thought I'd pass on the recommendation

Thanks that’s helpful, I know they’ll have covered stuff in school too but I don’t know what it is so good to be able to see what they’ve probably been told already!

I'd buy him some condoms and stick them in his room...

@Karwomannghia

Thanks that’s helpful, I know they’ll have covered stuff in school too but I don’t know what it is so good to be able to see what they’ve probably been told already!

At the moment only straight children receive sex education, so I wouldn’t personally rely on his lessons at school.

These are some useful resources
www.impactprogram.org/topics/sex-ed/

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.advocate.com/love-and-sex/2015/11/17/gay-sex-ed-guide-fun-and-worry-free-anal-sex%3famp

www.healthline.com/health/lgbtqia-safe-sex-guide#learn-more
Some bits of this are good, particularly the links at the bottom.

Thanks Simon, the curriculum is biased in many ways so I guess I’m not surprised to hear that. I will have a look at the links.