Sex Education for everyone: what are the prospects for the application on sex education in the CIS?

Finally!

The first full-fledged application from the field of Sex Education in the CIS —  Intimatica —   is available for download in the AppStore. This is one of the products of a startup of the same name, launched by three founders from Belarus. Last month, we discussed with them about sex education prejudices, the complexities of adolescence, and gender stereotypes in the startup community. Today we will look at the application from different angles.

Entrepreneurs see their mission as making sex education simple, rewarding and fun. Collect information verified by WHO in one place and present it for adolescents in an accessible form.

In 2017, a research of the content of more than 2,000 applications was published, all of these applications were positioning themselves in the Sexual Health Education segment. The authors of the study note that it is possible to achieve the goals of sex education more effectively in the form of an application than in other, more traditional ones. Most of these apps, however, focus on the topics of infection-resistant sex and preventing unwanted pregnancies. At the same time, they avoid broader topics that affect adolescents —  sexual identity, the specifics of puberty, and others, and also do not use interactive formats. That is, the researchers conclude that the potential of these applications is still not fully realized.

The Intimatica app, like all products of their "universe", contains basic information about the topic of growing up. Access to it is possible after registration and indicating the age - the requirement to comply with the age restrictions. The developer Bamboo Apps helped the project with its development.

The application has several sections: 

1. Theory —  articles covering all adult-related topics.

2. Stories —  analysis of stories sent by users by a psychologist.

3. Video —  cartoons of the Amaze studio and episodes of the series of the project about the problems of growing up "#ThisIsNotProblem".

4. Courses —  courses developed by project experts will be available soon here.

It is important to note that each user in his personal account can send his question/story to a psychologist and receive a qualified answer. Only with the consent of the author, the story will be published along with the analysis in the appropriate section. 

At the moment, the application is available in English and Russian. Thanks to the latter, some adolescents in the CIS countries have access to information, where there is still no consensus about the need for sex education, which means that there is no such product either.

Therefore, the application has great potential for scaling. UNICEF, in its extensive research of markets in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, notes that the demand for information on the topic of growing up among adolescents is growing from year to year. It also simplifies access to the Internet and information —  thanks to various mobile devices. However, users are forced to search for information in English on technological products from other regions —  the existing request is not satisfied with the available offer. 

Link to AppStore