In 2004 Puffta started to carry out research about Gay Teens in the UK. Our first survey, revealed that 46% of gay teens were having unsafe sex. A massive figure that the media latched onto, and wouldn’t let go of throughout the year. The response from us was to launch Positive Adam, an honest, frank and very revealing diary of an hiv positive young person. We use our research to make informed choices about content and the service we provide. In 2005 we carried out the same survey, which is now our annual survey.

We've just launched a new survey to find out how much money our boys have to spend, where they get it from, and what they spend it on. The results will be released spring 2006, but from the small sample collected already and research of their straight counterparts we know our market loves to spend their money!

Love.Sex.Life Survery 2005

Last year national gay teen web site www.puffta.co.uk revealed 46% of gay teenagers were having regular unprotected sex. This is the second year puffta has carried out a survey on gay teens about what they get up to in their bedrooms, along with drug use and their self image. The question that seems to be attracting most attention is how many gay teens are having unsafe sex. This year the results are even more shocking. Simon Johnson, editor of puffta, takes us through some of the results...
 
How do this years findings compare to last years?
 
Last year we focused on sex and one of the questions was if they (gay teens) ever had unsafe sex. The result was 46%. It’s as if the safe sex message has been ignored. This year we asked if they’d had bareback sex within the past three months. 35% said yes, and most of these respondents were likely to have multiple partners and say they’re hiv negative or don’t know their status. Some of them are likely to be positive and could be unknowingly damaging their health further and possibly passing on hiv to other people. It’s not just hiv they have to worry about, there are so many other sexually transmitted diseases they could be catching and not even know it.
 
This year you asked if gay teens were taking drugs during sex. Drug use amongst gay men seems to be growing, what were your findings?
 
 I personally thought that drug use in this age range of 13-21 would be much higher. 17% is still high, it should be 0%. There has been so much publicity recently about Crystal Meth being used amongst gay men, it doesn’t seem to have reached this group yet, the majority of those using drugs stick to the more common drugs like cocaine and ecstasy.
 
So why aren't teenagers taking precautions?
 
That’s a really good question. It’s not something we’ve directly asked. But one of the factors could be self esteem. We asked how happy gay teenagers were with their body. It was quite surprising to find that many just thought they were average. I was expecting a lot of them to say they’re hot. Maybe that’s one of the reasons so many young gay men let themselves go when they have sex. Add in a few drinks at a bar or some drugs, and that’s a recipe for feeling more attractive and having more confidence, but also taking risks and not realizing what you’ve done until it’s too late.

With thanks to the PinkPaper, RainbowNetwork, Postive Nation for their support of the puffta survey.