American teenagers between 13-18 years of age, 84% turn to the internet to search for answers to a sexual health problem. However, studies indicate that 55 to 90% of the sexual health sites consist of wrong or misleading information. Even the physicians spend an average of only 36 seconds with teens talking about sex. President Obama, with his FY 2017 budget, continues to demonstrate his strong commitment to supporting the sexual health of the nation's youth through age-appropriate, medically accurate, and science-based programs.
We believe that sex and relationships education is one of the most effective ways in aiming to behavior change, including reducing unprotected and unwanted sex, and reducing the harmful behavior, including sexual offenses such as assault and abuse. Counting on the facts that on every 2 minutes an American is sexually assaulted and having a child victim in every 8 minutes, we decided to create Wiki1001 application for:
- Something that youth wouldn't be perturbed in searching such issues,
- Not being tracked what they search with total anonymity,
- Reaching to reliable answers and hotlines even when they are offline,
- Helping parents to have a source under their belts in communicating with their kids,
- A task force in delivering the intimate knowledge and education on sexuality and sexual health in a way far from being tedious.
Wiki1001 is the first app that took the pledge to stop sexual assault containing ItsOnUS campaign objectives.
Working on teen psychology and behavior on mobile and their search patterns for health related issues would definitely help campuses struggling to prevent sexual assault and sexually related health issues. Based on these online behaviors, two physicians have created Wiki1001 app after extensive research on sexuality and sexual health in a time of two years with all data based on evidence and up-to-date.
Wiki1001 offers over 1,000 answers and tips to the most searched questions by teens about sexuality in a fun and gamified design. It covers extensive topics such as safe sex, pregnancy, birth control, bullying, violence, sexual assault, alcohol and drug abuse, STD prevention, depression, and suicide. Users can find reliable answers to tricky questions in about 15 seconds in which in a way faster than search engines.
Co-founders of Wiki1001 have set their starting base from research on sex and relationships education (SRE) programs. This study revealed that 40 percent of these had a significant impact on three aspects of behavior: delaying the initiation of sex; reducing the number of sexual partners; and increasing condom or contraceptive use. Good SRE, together with access to sexual health services, can contribute to the following public health priorities:
- Earlier reporting of sexual abuse and, in some cases, its prevention,
- Reduced number of unplanned pregnancies,
- Reduced maternal mortality,
- Reduced infant mortality,
- Prevention and earlier treatment of sexually transmitted infections,
- Reducing the gap in health and gender inequality.
Wiki1001, the first app that took the pledge to stop sexual assault (containing ItsOnUS campaign objectives as a category) moderated by physicians, also contains symptom checker, health news categorized by age & gender, help & support links and hotlines which youth may reach whenever they feel stressed or intimidated on sensitive issues.
We started the campaign with the following motto which captured a respectable attraction by the youth: "You are offline, alone or embarrassed to ask. Then what?
Ask Wiki1001"
Just to attract the youth to such a struggling area of education and consciousness, we created a tricky site for the app (https://wiki1001.org ) and a viral video with a dog searching "the truth" (https://youtu.be/f6exxy_1fPw) created in Morocco deserts.
Who are we: The Wiki1001 app is created by Caredir® team which was founded by two physicians with 30 years of experience, to combat the prevalence of dangerous unreliable medical and treatment information available to the public. We have been working on teen psychology and behavior on mobile and teens' search patterns for health related issues. Although a new startup, creator of the Wiki1001 app, Caredir® (https://Caredir.com) was named the winner of 3 Stevie® Awards in a row (Start-up of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year and Health Products & Services) at the recent 12th Annual International Business Awards.
Although a new app (launched in mid-June 2016), we started attracting users from our social media accounts targeting to make a reasonable touch to our mission for the future of the next generations.
Facebook : Wiki1001: Your Intimate Friend
Twitter : Wiki1001app
YouTube : Wiki1001
Instagram : Wiki1001app
Pinterest : Wiki1001
One of the FB posts had over 50K views ( https://www.facebook.com/wiki1001/ ) and one of the videos in Wiki1001 YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/f6exxy_1fPw ) had over 17K views in such a short period.
The lack of education about reproduction and preparation for adult life has been identified by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a children's rights issue that needs urgent attention. UNESCO recently published international guidance on 'sexuality education' that set out the evidence supporting sexuality education for children and young people between the ages of 5 and 18, urging both developing and developed countries to make sure all youth learn about HIV, contraception, human sexuality and relationships.
The Wiki1001 app is created on iOS and Android platforms and in 2 languages for the time being. Our target is to reach as much as to underprivileged youth in developing and developed countries. Peer-to-peer sexual education with parents and in schools should synergistically be supported with any kind of reliable, easily accessed digital sources for mobile-oriented generations.
