Latest Condom News

Condoms for Victorian prisoners

From next week, Marngoneet and Dhurringile men's prisons and the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and Tarrengower women's prisons will be the first to receive safe-sex aids.

The move comes five years after an Ombudsman recommendation to provide condoms and dental dams to prisoners to prevent the spread of disease.

Corrections Minister Andrew McIntosh said the program will help protect the community, including family members and children who may be exposed to disease when prisoners are released.

"Condoms and dental dams can significantly reduce transmission of sexually transmissible infections and some blood-borne viruses," Mr McIntosh said.

"There are more than 5000 prisoners who leave prison every year, so it is important to take steps to protect both prisoners and the community from infectious disease."

Mr McIntosh said the government had worked extensively with the prison union to ensure the new measures do not jeopardise the safety and security of prisoners and staff.

"Evidence from other jurisdictions shows that condoms and dental dams have had no negative impacts to prison security and safety," he said.

Prisoners will be educated about safe sex practices, and condoms and dental dams will be available through prison health centres.

NZ's brothels gear up for busy World Cup

Sex workers in New Zealand expect to be rushed off their feet as 95,000 sports fans arrive for the Rugby World Cup, with brothels across the country doubling condom orders for the tournament.

"It's going to be very busy, tens of thousands of visitors, they will predominantly be men and many of them will be looking for some type of sexual activity whilst they are here," brothel operator Mary Brennan told AFP.

Brennan, a dominatrix who runs a bondage brothel in Wellington, said she had already received pre-bookings from South Africa, England, Ireland and Canada.

"The English are known to be particularly deviant," she said, citing the public school background of many England rugby fans.

"Whenever I hear an English accent I know there'll be some good business there."

New Zealand introduced some of the world's most liberal prostitution laws eight years ago, when sex work was decriminalised, allowing brothels and street workers to operate legally.

New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective coordinator Catherine Healy said many visitors during the September 9-October 23 tournament would be surprised at how openly the industry operates.

"Paying for sex in this country isn't against the law," she said.

"There isn't that whole subterfuge where people say it's a massage parlour, an escort agency, or we're just talking.

"Sex workers here will be far more frank, they'll say 'you can come and visit me at the brothel and these are the sorts of services I provide'."

The Prostitutes Collective was originally formed as a lobby group for sex workers but since the law change, Healy said, it also organises supplies of items such as condoms and lubricant for most of the country's brothels.

She said there were about 3,500 prostitutes working in New Zealand and all the signs were that business would be brisk during the World Cup.

"We've organised to have condom supplies doubled throughout the period, that took a bit of work with the condom companies," she said.

"The brothels are doubling up on their orders and getting ready... in our warehouse they're stacked from the floor to the ceiling."

For Wellington sex worker Raewyn Marshall, prostitution was "just another job", although she admitted many in the industry still hid their occupation from their families.

She said her brothel, which has eight women on its roster, would show Rugby World Cup games on a big screen in its waiting area, so fans would not have to miss out of any of the action at big matches.

Marshall noted that Americans were renowned as the best tippers in the business, while Australians - New Zealand's fierce trans-Tasman rivals - were the worst.

iCondom app promotes safer sex

There is probably nothing more agonizing than the moment in which you and your eager partner discover that you're out of condoms. Thankfully, an app called iCondom might help such an awful situation come to a happy ending.

The app is part of an effort to promote safer sex and the result of a partnership between MTV's Staying Alive campaign and iCondom. It can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store.

iCondom is definitely a pretty basic app, but it could still help save your evening by using your iPhone's GPS feature to help you find the nearest place to purchase condoms.

Thanks to crowd-sourced information, many map locations will offer notes detailing things such as whether a store is open 24/7 or if condoms can be picked up for free at a particular location. As more and more users contribute to the app's crowd-sourcing effort, the "condom distribution map" will grow and hopefully become an up-to-date resource for those seeking a bit of protection in a hurry.

Now that we've got the basic information about the app out of the way, let's take a moment to giggle about its name. Done? Great, now go download the iCondom and use it to stay safer.