SEXUAL ASSAULT: Of the 9,183 cases reported last year, nearly half involved minors who were allegedly assaulted by someone they met online, the health ministry said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 11, 2020
By: Yang Yuan-ting, Yang Mien-chieh and
Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Nearly 40 percent of junior-high school students who reported being sexually active said they did not use contraception the last time they had sex, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said in a report on Thursday.

The report, which collected about 5,700 valid responses in 2018 to investigate health-related behaviors among adolescents, showed that the number of junior-high school students who were sexually active rose 2.3 percent from a decade ago to 5.7 percent.

Past reports showed that 70 to 80 percent of female junior-high school students who had sex used birth control, but the rate dropped to 61 percent in 2018, the latest report showed.

Sex without contraceptives, such as condoms, can lead to unwanted pregnancies and brings a higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases, HPA Maternal and Child Health Division director Tseng Kuei-chin (曾桂琴) said, adding that females who have sex at an early age have an increased risk of cervical cancer.    [FULL  STORY]