Indonesia: Premarital sex popular at home

By Evi Mariani
January 28, 2005

Permissiveness among youngsters abounds in big cities, with many of them having had sex at home without the knowledge of their parents, according to a study.

The study, which covers the country's four biggest cities -- Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bandung -- reveals that 40 percent of 237 sexually active youngster respondents lost their virginity at home.

Another 26 percent had sex for the first time at a boarding house and another 26 percent lost their virginity in a hotel.

The study, carried out by London-based marketing surveyor Synovate and sponsored by DKT Indonesia, producer of Sutra and Fiesta condoms, chose 237 sexually active youngsters aged between 15 and 24 and 237 virgins.

Camita Wardhana, project director of Synovate, disclosed on Tuesday that of the 474 respondents, 90 percent claimed they had a steady boyfriend/girlfriend, and they spent their weekends either watching television or going out with boyfriends/girlfriends.

The survey also discloses that most of the youngsters -- 80 percent -- conceded that "sex before marriage is against my values and religion".

However, the survey revealed that some of them had sex anyway, regardless of their principles.

"Now the question is, how do you bridge the value with the behavior? That's the thing we should think about," Christopher H. Purdy, country director of DKT Indonesia, said on Wednesday.

Another interesting finding of the survey is that the roles of parents and schools in sex education is still minimum.

Only 5 percent of the total respondents, sexually active ones and virgins, said they had learned about sex through discussion with parents or teachers.

The majority, 65 percent, said they learned about sex from friends while 35 percent learned by watching pornographic films.

Later, 35 percent said their main source of sex information was friends, 22 percent said it was pornography and only 5 percent of the respondents said school.

Adrianus Tanjung, head of education at the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI), said his institution had long been telling the government to include sex education in the curriculum.

"But the government says there is no room in the curriculum for sex education. Some schools include it in extra classes, though," he said.

Adrian added that parents' roles in sex education was crucial.

"Teenagers should be told about sex by parents, not friends," he said.

"They should know what risks they face if they have premarital sex," he said.

He commented on a finding of the survey that 64 percent of the teenagers thought sexual intercourse was something that just happened, not something that was planned.

"It shows that the majority of teenagers do not realize the risks. They had sex without planning, meaning without thinking," he said.

Unplanned sex leads to sex without protection, Purdy said.

As the director of a condom maker, Purdy said he was relieved and glad to find that the study also found that condom advertisements and safe sex campaigns had not been proven to encourage promiscuity.

"The study found that both the sexually active and virgin groups have the same knowledge about condoms. They receive the same information on condoms," Purdy said.

"But the knowledge does not determine their sexual behavior," he added.

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