Gail T. Momblan over at The Daily Guardian, TDG, ran a jaw-dropping story over the weekend. An astonishing half of local Filpino youth are dense on sex. The Philippines ranks Number One in the world for average daily social media usage. Filipinos spend almost four hours a day on social media, mainly Facebook. There are 67 million Facebook accounts in the Philippines. That matches the total number of internet users in the Philippines.

Consequently, The Crusty Old Expat, is a mite confused. Having no Facebook myself, I occasionally use my wife’s FB account to post an article from this website, “PhilippinesPlus.”

I just took a peek at my better half’s Facebook and there is absolutely no mention about sex. However. There were birthday greetings, Bible quotes, plus a post about which angel will protect you in 2019.

OK, some good spiritual stuff there, but my wife’s crowd might be a bit more conservative than our 18-year-old college-going nephew who lives with us.

Hence, when I logged onto our nephew’s page, I saw the following post:

Nothing too racy. Momoland is some K-Pop group that is coming back to Manila in 2019. My knowledge of any K-Pop music is absolutely zero and I want to keep it that way. The Crusty Old Expat is a head-banger at heart.

Momoland today

However, the rest of my nephew’s FB page was pretty tame. A belated birthday greeting to his girlfriend.

A picture of some dead guy sprawled out on the street and a martial arts clip was what I saw next. I’ll spare you those images.

New Sex Study Stunner

That said, perhaps a recent survey of young people in Western Visayas, and the region we live in, shouldn’t be too surprising. With only clips of Momoland to go on, some 46.1 percent of young people in WV do not have any source of information about sex.

Nope, I’m not making this up. I just report it. The recent Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS 4) revealed this mind-blowing nugget.

YAFS 4 is a cross-sectional surveys on the Filipino youth aged 15-24. The University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation (DRDF) provide updated information on a broad range of sexuality and reproductive health issues conducts it.

The study also indicated that majority of the youth in the country do not feel they have adequate knowledge about sex.

In fact, only 31 percent of males and 24 percent of females said they have enough knowledge about sex.

TV and the Movies Influence?

You probably might be wondering why the kids aren’t getting any info from dirty television programs or R-rated movies in the Philippines. Well, if you live in the States or some other Western nation and have never watched TV in the Philippines you wouldn’t know Filipino TV is heavily censored.

You won’t see any nudity on any programs or movies shown on our Cignal satellite system. The internet is also regulated.

That’s not to say you can’t find information about sex on the World Wide Web, it’s just that the kids (and many adults) are too busy updating their Facebook accounts.

Bird and the Bees Talk?

Nah, I’m not giving it.

I’m just the uncle who tries to keep a low profile and let’s my wife meddle in any relationship problems with our 21-year-old niece (who lives with us part-time) or her brother, our nephew. As long as nobody gets knocked up, I’m fine. Rest assured, there will never be any squealing, crying, pooping baby in this household (well, maybe me, when I get a bit older.)

The nieces and nephews in Manila? Well, that’s another story. Let me just say they’re adding to the soaring general population numbers in the Philippines on a regular basis.

New App will Solve the Problem

Finally, not to worry. The Commission on Population in Western Visayas has developed “AHlam Na!” a mobile application on Adolescent Health (AH.)

“AHlam Na!” results from the young people’s expression “alam na”, which means something was validated.

The “AH” added at the beginning of the word emphasizes the meaning of Adolescent Health.

The application will provide the youth with knowledge on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health-related information.

It will do this through online quizzes on puberty, sexuality, Human Immuno Deficiency Virus- Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) and referral pathways.

The youth will engage others in the quiz and encourage them to also download the application through sharing their quiz results on social media.

The application was launched on December 13, 2018 and can now be downloaded on smart phones, Marshall said.

Will the app be effective? Don’t know. Maybe they should just put it on Facebook with an updated pic of Momoland.