Health Minister James Reilly should
 suspend public funding of Spunout.ie

March
24, 2013 – PUBLIC funding for the website Spunout.ie should be
suspended because of its radically pro-choice philosophy, its promotion of an
extremely permissive approach to sexual behaviour among teenagers, and because
of the way in which the role of parents in the lives of their teenage children
is almost completely sidelined by the site.

Speaking on
behalf of the Iona Institute, Breda O’Brien said: “Does Health Minister James
Reilly seriously believe this is a good use of public money? Can he seriously
justify continuing to fund a website which tell teenagers that ‘threesomes’ are
‘fun’?”

She continued:
“Minister Reilly must also justify the provision of State money to a website
which, in its section on abortion makes no mention whatever of the rights of the
unborn child and seems to have no issue at all with what can only be called
‘social abortions’.

She added:
“There is a marked difference between advice given about social smoking, and the
advice on sexual behaviour. The website is very directive about not smoking, but
suggests that reasons for having a threesome include the fact that they are
‘pretty exciting’ and ‘people usually enjoy them.’ ”

The website is
allegedly aimed at 16-25 year olds, but in fact some pages are specifically
directed to younger children, such as their page on puberty which is obviously
aimed at children aged 10-14.

The Iona
Institute believes that most parents would be very unhappy with a website that
effectively sells sex as a purely recreational activity to their children and
where the only issues are how to avoid contracting STIs or getting pregnant. The
website clearly lacks any concept of any guiding principles that may be applied
to decision making on important life issues, other than if it ‘feels right for
you’.

“The attitude
of this website stands in marked contrast to another State-funded website,
B4Udecide.ie, which advises teenagers to delay having sex until they are
older.

Breda O’Brien
continued: ‘Although there is some useful material, it is not just a case of
removing offending pages. There is a very definite worldview underlying the
site, which includes little recognition of the role of parents, other than how
to negotiate with these somewhat troublesome adults when they don’t agree with
your course of action.’

State funding
should be withdrawn from it until it can be shown that the advice given on it is
geniunely helpful, in keeping with the wishes of the parents who are paying for
this through their taxes, and appropriate for the very young age groups that
will access this site. Parents have a right to know that a state funded website
aimed at their children is not actively undermining their values.’

ENDS

Notes
to editors:

1. The Iona
Institute is a pro-marriage, pro-religion think tank