Internet Used To Promote Sexual Health
Los Angeles and San Francisco use the Internet to promote sexual health more than cities such as Atlanta and Miami, the Los Angeles Times reports. Los Angeles and San Francisco use online applications to encourage testing for sexually transmitted infections, provide counseling and help people notify partners about their infections.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health recently launched the site hookinguponline.org, which aims to promote safe sex. The department also has a site that allows users to download lab slips on their computers and then anonymously visit a testing center. Users then can log on to the site a few days later to access the results.
Los Angeles County and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation introduced the site inspotla.org which allows HIV-positive users to anonymously notify sex partners via electronic postcards that they should be tested. Also, AIDS Project Los Angeles on Valentine's Day launched mysexycity.com, an interactive site for young gay men that allows them to interact with animated characters in high-risk sexual situations.
In addition, counselors with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center identify themselves on the social networking site myspace.com and Manhunt.net, which is aimed at men seeking male sex partners online, with user names such as "letstalkaboutsex" and "askmeabouthealth" and provide sexual health information, according to Jeff Bailey, the center's director of education (Costello, Los Angeles Times, 4/4).