Female students learn about sex from Internet

More than half of female college students in Guangzhou acquire their knowledge of sex from the Internet, according to a recent survey by the Guangdong provincial capital's women's federation on Monday.

The Sun Yat-sen University in the city conducted a survey of female students of nine local universities from November to January.

Of those polled, 90 percent are Guangzhou natives while 70 percent are urban residents.

The Internet and publications are two major sources of information about sex for the female students, with 53.1 percent of respondents choosing the former and 51.4 percent the latter. Only 16.6 percent of those polled said they learned about sex from their parents.

The survey shows that 28.3 percent of the polled students are bothered by their lack of sexual knowledge. They are also short of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases.

As high as 83 percent of the polled students believed premarital sex is a matter of personal choice with little relation to morality.

Su Pei, chairman of Guangzhou Women's Federation, said that although female college students have open attitudes toward sex, they are still rather conservative and rational about sexual behaviors.

"Many say that young people who were born in the 1990s are self-centered and a lost generation. However, the survey show that the female college students who were born in the 1990s have a great sense of responsibility about career and family," Su said.

A job in a governmental organization is not the first choice for female college students in Guangzhou, according to the survey. Working for a company is the top choice, selected by 28 percent of those polled, while only 14.3 percent preferred a job as a civil servant or in a public institution.

Many respondents said they hope the women's federation can help them with job-hunting, such as offering internship opportunities at the federation, providing a consultancy service and hosting job fairs specially for female college students.

Almost 60 percent of the polled students said they are willing to get married upon graduation as long as their financial conditions are suitable and their parents agree.