State shuts down sex info site for young men
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By Darren M. Allen Vermont Press Bureau - Published: December 15, 2005
MONTPELIER — Man-phone.org, Vermont's innovative and award-winning sexual education outreach program for young men, has been taken off the Internet because it had links to a site the Douglas administration found inappropriate.
And even though the operators of the site, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, promptly removed the questionable link, state health officials on Wednesday said they had no immediate plans to reactivate the site.
"Last week I learned that one of the links was to a site that had been vetted before but whose content had changed," Health Commissioner Paul Jarris said in a brief telephone interview. "As soon as I saw this link, I wanted to shut the site and I have asked for full analysis."
Manphone.org attracts an average of about 75 visitors a day, according to Planned Parenthood. A companion toll-free telephone line is still in operation.
Begun during the Dean Administration, Manphone was designed to give sexually active men between the ages of 18 and 24 a place to get answers to their sexual questions.
The program — funded by an annual federal grant of about $125,000 — has always meant to pique the interest of a group of young men who are hard to reach and who, health officials say, are the most likely to engage in unsafe sexual practices.
And while Planned Parenthood agreed that the questionable link — to sexuality.org — should not have been allowed to remain on the site, the group believes keeping Manphone off the Web is counterproductive."Men in this age group are heavy users of the Internet, and heavy users of the Web for pornography and other inaccurate and inappropriate channels of information," said Jessica Oski, vice president for public policy and government affairs for Planned Parenthood. "This is meant to give men access to information about reproductive health care."
The link that has led to the site's disappearance offers, among other things, links to sites that sell erotic and sexually explicit videos and DVDs.
"We're glad that the inappropriate link was brought to our attention and agree that the link should have been removed," Oski said.
Manphone garnered at least two national awards for its edgy style, including television and radio spots that were meant to grab the attention of young men. It was featured in a 2002 New York Times article which called it one of the most innovative public health agency approaches to reaching a population rarely interested in reproductive health issues.
The Douglas administration is not against using that edgy approach, Jarris insisted, although he would not predict when — or if — the site will reappear.
"It was a very innovative program, and it got a lot of recognition," Jarris said. "It is an innovative way to reach this very high-risk population that we can't write off because of our own discomfort."
The link to a site that sells movies with sexual content, however, made it too uncomfortable for the Douglas administration.
"State government should never support the sale of pornography," said Jason Gibbs, press secretary for Gov. James Douglas. "The governor finds that the content that was discovered on that site was entirely inappropriate."
Oski of Planned Parenthood echoed Jarris when she listed the benefits of Manphone's approach: It gave information on all elements of sexuality, from diseases, to unintended pregnancy, to treating partners with respect and even abstinence.
"We would like to see the Web site up as soon as possible," she said. "We want to continue working very closely with the Vermont Department of Health on this very valuable resource for men in Vermont."
Contact Darren Allen at darren.allen@rutlandherald.com.
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