06 August,2010 12:30 PM IST | | Agencies
Family planning has a new twist to it, as Family Planning Victoria prepares to provide free condoms to 12-year-old students in school, in a bid to reduce teen pregnancies.
The taxpayer-financed group said they should be kept in student common rooms, or distributed by machines.
"We do know that there are some very young people having sex," News.com.au quoted Family Planning chief executive Lynne Jordan as saying.
"If a younger person who is sexually active gets the condom, I would think that's a better proposition than them actually having unprotected sex," she added.
Jordan added that there was no evidence suggesting that easy availability of condoms led to increased sexual activity.
However, Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said that people would be dead against it, and they don''t see it as the school's business.
Stephen Franzi-Ford, of the Association of School Councils in Victoria, agreed.
But, he said that it was a legitimate issue nevertheless considering the rise of sexually transmitted infections.
"It's actually a health issue," he said.
However, opinions remain divided as to whether schools should or shouldn't interfere in this manner.
