HANOI — Communist-run Vietnam is not known as the most sexually open-minded nation on the planet’s surface. Sex talk is taboo both at home and at school, internet porn is illegal within the country, and the Ministry of Culture and Information recently ordered all internet shops to install anti-porn filtering software on all computers — yet abortion and prostitution are commonplace.Nonetheless – or perhaps at least in part because of these things – the country will soon provide downloadable internet videos for married couples hoping to learn about healthy sex.
The news comes from the official English-language Vietnam News, which stated that Khuat Thu Hong, Deputy Director of the Institute for Social Development as having stated that a government sponsored “orthodox sex web site” would provide couples with information about “healthy sexual intercourse.”
Not yet named, the website will contain only educational images, according to Hong.
According to the Vietnam Family Planning Association, approximately 1.4 million abortions are performed within the country each year, because there is not enough information for teenagers about contraception and general sexual health and behavior.
The country’s population currently stands at 83 million, but Hong is reported to have admitted that some married couples are not having sex, the divorce rate is rising, and the number of women working as prostitutes is rising, making it imperative that information become available to citizens.
