Poll to study porn usage, among other sexual habits

Fri, Jul 16, 2010

my paper

FINDING out how widespread the habit of indulging in pornography is in Singapore may help reverse the falling birth rate here.

Looking at pornographic material may disrupt the need to engage in sexual activities in marriage, which would then result in fewer babies, said the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association (SPPA).

So the non-profit organisation, which promotes sexual and reproductive health, aims to find out how many people are looking at pornography and how often they are doing so - among other sexual habits - through an online survey.

Through the Fertility Awareness Survey, which it launched yesterday, it hopes to discover the factors causing the low birth rate here and resolve them.

For example, should pornography prove to be a pressing issue, it would advise couples on the matter during its sexual-intimacy talks, and rope in other voluntary welfare organisations and government agencies like the Health Promotion Board to help.

It also plans to offer counselling services and, through publishing the survey's results, spur couples facing the issue to come forward.

The association also hopes to use the survey results to raise public awareness of contraception and sexually transmitted diseases.

It aims to get 2,200 people, aged 16 to 40, to take its 52-question survey within three months.

The results will then be analysed by a panel of professionals including Professor Wong Peng Cheang, head of department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the National University of Singapore.

The SPPA carried out a similar survey in 1981, but that had focused on young people aged 14 to 21.

Attitudes may have changed since then, and the survey will give a better idea of what people in the reproductive age group think, said Prof Wong.

Mr Edward Ong, the SPPA's president, said that the survey will help to "create a profile of the young people and their lifestyles and, if other organisations find it useful, they can use it to model their programmes after the findings".

More than 30 people have completed the survey. To take part, visit https://fas.questionpro.com/ Participants can remain anonymous, but those who want to stand a chance of winning movie vouchers and a $150 dining voucher in a lucky draw can key in their identity-card number.

Hong Kong gang-rape victim not Singaporean, says MFA

On June 29, the young woman was allegedly raped six times by three Nepalese men on a yacht. -AsiaOne

Thu, Jul 08, 2010

AsiaOne

Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said yesterday that the woman allegedly raped by three men was not a Singaporean, as reported by national daily The Straits Times.

Local media had reported that the university student was from Singapore. She was allegedly gang-raped while on an exchange programme in Hong Kong.

This happened on June 29 when the young woman was allegedly raped six times by three Nepalese men on a yacht.

She had met them earlier at a pub in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's famous nightlife district.

Two men were charged on Monday with rape as well as aiding and abetting rape. The third, who is out on bail, is to report back to police by the end of the month.

Singaporean gang-raped in HK

A SINGAPOREAN undergraduate was gang-raped last month while on an exchange programme in Hong Kong, Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily reported on Sunday.

The Hong Kong police have arrested a man in connection with the crime, and are looking for two others who are believed to have been involved.

The woman, 22, had gone alone to a bar in Lan Kwai Fong, an area in the Central district with many bars and restaurants, and had become drunk.

Three Nepalese men who worked in the bar - two of whom are believed to be brothers - approached her and invited her to a party on a yacht.

She accepted their invitation, and they took her to a yacht in the Causeway Bay area, where they took turns to rape her, for a total of six times. The men had left by the time she woke up the following morning. She made a police report, and was taken to hospital for an examination.

Police in Hong Kong have classified the case as rape, the newspaper said. Police identified the three men, after visiting the bar and the yacht and reviewing the bar's closed-circuit television footage, and arrested one of the men near Lan Kwai Fong. -- MY PAPER - July 6, 2010