Highlighting Youth Sex Trends, DPR Reminds About Health Risks Of Reproduction

JAKARTA - Commission IX of the House of Representatives highlighted the rampant sex phenomena carried out by teenagers aged 15-19 years in Indonesia. The Commission in the House of Representatives in charge of health affairs also asked the Government to further intensify education and socialization about the dangers of sex at an age that is too young for the reproductive health of adolescents.

"This is a very worrying condition, it turns out that there are still a lot of early marriages and sex trends THAT are intimidating by teenagers," said Member of Commission IX of the DPR, Arzeti Bilbina, Tuesday, August 13.

"There must be ongoing efforts to reduce the phenomenon of early marriage and suspected sex because it can have an impact on the reproductive health of adolescents, especially for women," he continued.

The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) revealed that the trend of early marriage has actually decreased, it's just that the trend of teenage sexual intercourse has increased. The trend of early marriage or early marriage in Indonesia has decreased, as seen from the original 40 out of 1,000 teenage women, currently the comparison is only 26 out of 1,000 teenage girls who are married early.

Despite the decline, the trend of early marriage remains worrying. Given that 26 women are pregnant, this means that a total of 2,600 teenage girls are pregnant with a comparison of 100,000. If the comparison is 1 million people, it means that there are 26,000 thousand teenage girls who are pregnant.

Arzeti also reminded that the rate of early marriage trends must be reduced because women aged 15-19 years are more vulnerable to the risk of illness and the consequences if they have sexual intercourse at an early age.

"So sexual education and reproductive health are important to do," said Arzeti.

"The House of Representatives Commission IX encourages the Government and the public to continue to improve education about reproductive health and safe sexuality," continued the legislator from the East Java I electoral district.

Arzeti assessed that reproductive health education can be provided in a formal educational environment. Of course, the material is adjusted to the age and level of student education.

"If necessary, reproductive education will be optimized in formal educational environments such as schools so that our children can better understand the risks of having sexual intercourse at an early age," Arzeti urged.

Early marriage alone can put mothers' pregnancy at risk, such as prone to bleeding, premature birth, low birth weight (BBLR), and can increase maternal and baby mortality. Arzeti emphasized that socialization of the impact of early marriage should be increasingly massive.

"The risks that must be accepted by young women who have an early marriage are too heavy. Not to mention psychological and socio-economic factors that can also affect family resilience," he said.

Arzeti also highlighted data on an increasing trend of teenage sexual intercourse. The latest data from the BKKBN shows that more than 50% of teenage girls have sexual intercourse at the age of 15 to 19 years. Meanwhile, in men, the number is higher, which is above 70%.

"It is better not to have sex before marriage. Apart from contrary to norms and religions, the health impact is also very significant, especially for women," said Arzeti.

The member of the House of Representatives' Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Agency (BKSAP) said that Indonesia is now entering new challenges that need to be overcome by providing sexual education and optimizing the role of parents and schools for teenagers. Arzeti emphasized that the no sex campaign before marriage must be further encouraged.

"Currently, Indonesia has new challenges that need to be overcome, including increasing the risk of reproductive health, unsafe sex behavior, and lack of sexual education," he said.

"Therefore, it is necessary to make comprehensive and integrated prevention efforts to deal with and reduce the negative impact of this phenomenon," added Arzeti.

Arzeti then mentioned the rules regarding the provision of contraceptives for school-age children who recently caused polemics. The regulation is one of the mandates in Government Regulation (PP) No. 28 of 2024 concerning Health that has just been issued.

"The provision of sexual education must be explained comprehensively and clearly so that there is no misinterpretation received by the community," he said.

"Then it needs to be evaluated also through how the community responds, to find out whether the policy is effective," concluded Arzeti.