A new Planned Parenthood campaign that seeks to leverage the social media explosion features condoms with QR codes that allow users to “check-in” through their smartphones when they use them. The accompanying site, WhereDidYouWearIt.com, displays an interactive map showing where users checked in and allows people proud of having protected sex to share a little bit about their experience. The officials at Planned Parenthood make it clear that they are not promoting sex, or no sex, just safe sex and openness about it above all else.
From The New York Daily News:
“We hope the site promotes discussions within relationships about condoms and helps to remove perceived stigmas that some people may have about condom use. Where Did You Wear It attempts to create some fun around making responsible decisions.”
When checking in, the site asks users, “The Safe Sex Was”… The choices include “Ah-maz-ing – Rainbows exploded and mountains trembled,” to “Things can only improve from here.”
The site allows you to read other users’ check-ins and safe-sex experience. For instance, one young couple in Pennsylvania is looking forward to another surreptitious, protective intercourse experience.
The post reads, “A 20 something girl and a guy whose relationship is just for fun and have already talked about safer sex and STDs used a condom in a secret spot to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. It was great – can’t wait for round 2.”
55,000 of these condoms were distributed at colleges and universities on the west coast during National Condom Week (Feb 14-21), and so far there have been check-ins in all but two of the fifty states and on six continents.
Nobody can argue with the need to come up with creative ways to reach the social media generation, and frank talk about safe sex is conspicuously absent from public discourse. But it’s still sex — something that is ideally private and personal — does everybody need to know all of your business? Because call me old-fashioned but if I signed on and saw that my last partner had ‘checked-in’ and provided a rating for what we did together I would be less than thrilled.
What do you think? Do you want people to know where you get-it-in at?
WORST.INVENTION.EVER. Planned parenthood provides a necessary service in this world of instant gratification but they strike me as an organization that does way more harm to the family structure than good.
Thanks for the interest in our site.
One point to clarify:
“Call me old-fashioned but if I signed on and saw that my last partner had ‘checked-in’ and provided a rating for what we did together I would be less than thrilled.”
The site is completely anonymous. You’d never be able to tell if that dot was from your partner or not. The dot is randomized +/-1,000 feet from your check in location. That’s about 3-4 city blocks. Plus, the map prevents you from zooming to the street or house level. You can look at neighborhood, but not houses.
The site is an attempt to add to a larger conversation, about not only normalizing and encouraging condom use, but celebrating people’s healthy behaviors. When someone uses a condom they are protecting their health and the health of their partner. Why shouldn’t they feel proud about that? Of course not everyone is going to want to share that information online. Completely understandable. Most visitors to our site don’t actually check in, they check out the map. And what do they see? People near and far, in relationships just like theirs, reporting that they are making healthy decisions, that they are concerned about STDs and unintended pregnancy, that they are talking to their partners about safer sex, and, contrary to popular belief, people are reporting that using a condom doesn’t mean that the experience isn’t enjoyable.