Accurate information and confidential health services are turnkeys to motivation and responsible behavior. Deprived of these rights, young people are also deprived of their ability to protect themselves. Respect Society needs to value young people and to challenge the current stereotype of adolescence. Adults should stop defining youth solely in terms of risk factors and instead define them by the inventory of assets they possess. When adults respect youth, adults empower youth.
Empowered youth are unlikely to choose early parenthood or to fail to protect themselves.
Responsibility Young people owe it to themselves and to others to act responsibly to safeguard their own health and the health of others. But responsibility is a two-way street. Society owes young people the message that they matter. These services will assure young people that they are valued and that they will have a future worth protecting their health. The challenge for Advocates, nationally and internationally, is to encourage positive attitudes in youth and adults, change archaic policies, and articulate the values of rights, respect, and responsibility in short, to give voice to a new vision of adolescent sexual health.