Interactive video teaches teens safe sex

An interactive DVD that presents teens with risky sexual situations and their potential outcomes may help reduce adolescent rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), West Virginia University Health News recently reported.

Teen health experts at the university created the video with the help of a grant from the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health. The office has earmarked more than $7 million to help disseminate the DVD across five counties in West Virginia.

The DVD is titled "What Could You Do?" and contains a number of possible sexual circumstances that teens may face. When each video clip comes to the point of decision, viewers may pick from a number of choices and see what those decisions lead to.

Video creator Pamela Murray told the news source that this digitized choose-your-own-adventure format allows teens to understand that risky sex acts are not as unavoidable as they often seem at the time.

She also said that the university will check in with teen girls who watch the video to see if their subsequent health outcomes are improved in any way.

Anyone who has contracted what they think may be an STD should consider looking into online testing services as soon as possible.

More than one in four teens between the ages of 14 and 19 has an STD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.