{"id":13486,"date":"2025-08-21T08:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/13486\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:48:08","slug":"irish-pupils-relying-on-social-media-and-ai-for-sexual-health-advice-study-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/13486\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish pupils relying on social media and AI for sexual health advice, study warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

School pupils are widely falling for myths and misconceptions around sexual health and contraception because they are relying on social media and AI for information, a leading obstetrician has warned.<\/p>\n

Almost two-thirds of pupils questioned as part of an education programme believed using contraception can lead to infertility.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people are absolutely now relying on AI systems to get information. If you\u2019re relying on ChatGPT or Meta AI or any of these, you are assuming the background information they are providing you with is accurate,\u201d said Fergal Malone, a consultant obstetrician and the head of the RCSI\u2019s department of obstetrics and gynaecology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a lot of AI does is just echo inputs from other sources, for example Tik-Tok.<\/p>\n

“If misinformation goes in, there is a good chance that AI is going to pass on more misinformation. When you\u2019re talking about sexual health, contraceptive use, STIs, that\u2019s really concerning.”<\/p>\n

Prof Malone is co-lead on the education programme Debunking the Myths, in which more than 17,700 students across 166 schools have taken part over the last three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of the course, students can ask questions of medical staff. An average of 48% indicated they believe in safe times during the menstrual cycle during which women cannot get pregnant.<\/p>\n

The medics explain, he said, \u201cwhat happens and how long people can ovulate or ovulate at odd times, how sperm can hang out in the tubes for three to four days\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in other words, there is no safe time,\u201d Prof Malone said.<\/p>\n

\"AlmostAlmost two-thirds of pupils questioned as part of an education programme believed using contraception can lead to infertility.<\/p>\n

The team behind the programme found that while students are aware of the pill and condoms, Prof Malone said: \u201cThere is quite a lot of ignorance about the availability and the benefits of long-acting contraceptives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some 58% think a normal period cycle is 28 days only. Another 39% mistakenly think it is unsafe to take the pill without a break. \u201cThere\u2019s a misconception that periods are something you have to suffer through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sexually transmitted diseases are another area where there is a lack of knowledge. Prof Malone said:<\/p>\n

“We commonly get the question \u2018are STIs fatal?\u2019 which would probably reflect scaremongering they\u2019ve probably heard on TikTok.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get questions like \u2018can you get an STI from a toilet or from sharing a towel?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMany of these statements are made by influencers who, many times, have no medical credentials at all. Any one individual\u2019s experiences of a hormone or contraceptive doesn\u2019t necessarily reflect the widespread experience with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The programme was developed by the RCSI\u2019s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, based at the Rotunda Hospital.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, OpenAI, the company which created ChatGPT, set out reforms it said upgraded the quality of its information.<\/p>\n

This reporter asked ChatGPT can the pill make me infertile, and the response was: \u201cNo \u2014 the contraceptive pill does not make you infertile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if I could catch an STI sitting on a dirty toilet, it said only: \u201cIt\u2019s very unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta AI, developed by the Facebook creators, was less clear about the pill, saying only: \u201cThere\u2019s no strong evidence that the pill causes permanent infertility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School pupils are widely falling for myths and misconceptions around sexual health and contraception because they are relying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[2597,18,135,475,474,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-13486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}