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Those particularly at risk of contracting HIV include gay and bisexual teenagers, those who sell sex, injecting drug users, and transgender people. UNICEF is working with governments across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure they meet their obligations to protect adolescents’ health. In the end, Nest’s HIV test was negative, although he did test positive for herpes. I read all about HIV on the Internet – what would happen if I got a positive result, and what it’s like living on ARV drugs.” “I was very tense, and it took time to build up my courage to get the test. Once, after he accidently cut himself during unsafe sex, he went for an HIV test.
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Nest practices safe sex with people he doesn’t know well, but not with his regular partners. You can search for people by preference, including what kind of sex they’re into.” Some are looking for long-term relationships, but others just want sex. “Usually, if you go on Growlr, there will be around 50 guys available during the day, or 100 at night. “There are a lot of bears in Bangkok,” he says. But he later shifted to Growlr, a niche app for ‘bears’ – gay men who present a rugged, macho image. At first, he used Grindr and Jack’d, the most popular gay apps. We met at a shopping mall, then went to a hotel nearby.” © UNICEF EAPRO/2015/Andy BrownNest browses Growlr, a meet up app for bears, on his smart phoneĪ year later, in 2011, Nest got his first smart phone and discovered mobile dating apps. “We talked online for two months, then I came to Bangkok to meet him. “I was living in Bang Kapi at the time,” he recalls. Nest met his first boyfriend online in 2010 when he was 14, through a video chatting site. My mum wasn’t happy at first, but she’s come to accept it.” “I’ve never hidden it, and I didn’t have any trouble at school – most of my friends are gay or transgender, and my teachers liked me because I worked hard. “I’ve known I was gay since I was 11 or 12,” he says. Unlike some of his older friends, Nest had relatively few problems coming out. Nest sits in the garden of a trendy coffee shop in Ari, where Thai students meet to sip cappuccinos, hang out and play songs on an acoustic guitar. By connecting adolescents to a larger network of potential sexual partners, the apps also enable any HIV infections to spread further and faster.
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This can lead to spontaneous sex and risky behaviour. Unlike Internet dating, their precursor, mobile apps are location based – they show other users available in the immediate area, in real time. The epidemic is growing fastest among young gay and bisexual men, and the rise of mobile dating apps is one of the key driving factors. In 2014, there were at least 220,000 adolescents aged 10-19 living with HIV in the region, with major cities like Bangkok and Hong Kong hubs of new infections. Although new HIV infections are falling overall, they are rising among teenagers. But some of my friends just meet up for sex.”Ī new report – ‘Adolescents: Under the Radar in the Asia-Pacific AIDS Response’ – published by the Asia-Pacific Inter-Agency Task Team on Young Key Populations, which includes UNICEF, UNAIDS and others, shows that the Asia-Pacific region is facing a ‘hidden epidemic’ of HIV among adolescents. “I don’t like to have sex at the first meeting, I prefer to chat and get to know the person first. “I use apps to meet other guys nearby,” he says. Like many other gay adolescents, he uses mobile apps to meet up for dates. Through research, policy support and direct outreach, UNICEF is joining the effort to reverse an alarming trend. The changing social landscape brought on by new technology has helped create a ‘hidden epidemic’ of HIV among adolescents in the Asia-Pacific region.