Watching pornography is leading to an increase in the number of young people having unprotected sex and contracting gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a sexual health nurse and educator.
Vanessa Hamilton, the founder of Talking The Talk Healthy Sexuality Education, said pornography was the only avenue many young people used to learn about sex.
"We really need to look at the broad picture when it comes to sexuality education," she said.
"When I ask parents, 'Where are our kids getting their information from?' they say, TikTok, pornography, YouTube.
"Hardly anyone said parents, home or school."
The educator, who has spent 25 years working as a sexual health nurse, said many young people were watching pornography, which often involves penetration without the use of condoms.
"We really need to eroticise condoms in an engaging way for young people," she said.
"The fear-and-danger approach of 'don't get a sexually transmitted infection' or 'don't get pregnant' doesn't really resonate."
Gonorrhoea infects more than 100 million people globally each year.
Kate Seib, an associate professor at Griffith University, said about 40,000 Australians were diagnosed with the STI annually, but added that figure was likely to be higher because 80 per cent of infected women did not display symptoms.
"In Australia in the past 10 years that's more than doubled so there's been a 140 per cent increase in the past 10 years," she said.
"The cases are rising and it's getting harder to treat, so it really is at the top of our list on what we need to be focused on.
"In this age of antimicrobial resistance, there's a potential that it's going to be more common in the future."
Race to develop a vaccine
Dr Seib, a principal researcher at the Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics, says the race is on to find a vaccine for an infection that has become resistant to almost all antibiotics.
"We are really on our last line of treatment options for gonorrhoea," she said.
"If it becomes resistant to these current antibiotics that we treat it with, we've got nothing left.
"It's why we're working hard to find a vaccine so that we can prevent it from ever causing these problems in the first place."
Gonorrhoea can cause infection in the throat, genitals and rectum and is most common among young people aged 15-24 years.
In 2018 a "super gonorrhoea" was found in Australia that was resistant to all routine antibiotics.
Dr Seib says that is why a vaccine is needed quickly.
"We're getting really close," she said.
"We're hoping that some of the candidates that we've identified in the lab in the last few years will be able to go into clinical trials."
The scientist says they are also looking at whether a repurposed meningococcal vaccine could work as a standalone gonorrhoea vaccine.
"They've seen in a few different places that people who got the meningococcal vaccine seem to have had less gonorrhoea," she said.
"We are trying to prove that in a clinical trial whether there is cross protection there.
"The rates that they are predicting are about 30 to 40 per cent protection from the repurposed meningococcal vaccine."
Dr Seib said the STI can impact a woman's ability to become pregnant and produce a healthy baby.
"You can have low birth weight babies, or you can have ectopic pregnancies, where the egg is not properly embedded in the uterus," she said.
The researcher says she believes they are at least five years away from having a standalone vaccine for gonorrhoea.
Sex education is part of the solution
Vanessa Hamilton said global research shows that when people under the age of 17 years are given accurate and age-appropriate information about sexuality, consent and respectful relationships, they have better outcomes later in life.
"They delay having sex until they are older, they have less sexually transmitted infections and less unintended pregnancies," she said.
The educator said young people respond better if a doctor, teacher or parent speaks to them in an open, candid way about pleasure, responsibility, joy and intimacy.
