The handing out of free condoms in Helsinki schools may still happen.
This is because the City of Helsinki Social Welfare Board politicians have taken a much more positive attitude towards the experiment than the Social Services Department officials.
The Board accepted unanimously Sirkku Ingervo’s (Green) suggestion for a two-year experiment in which free condoms would be made available at upper secondary schools, vocational educational establishments, and universities.
The condom vending machines should be situated in “easily accessible places”. In practice this means school lavatories, Ingervo enlightens us.
The Board’s pronouncement is an answer to a motion by city councillor Ilkka Taipale (Soc. Dem.), in which a 1-3-year experiment was suggested in order to investigate whether free condoms would prevent the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases.
From the 1980s onwards, venereal diseases have become more and more common among Finnish adolescents and young adults.
