Website Lets Users Send Anonymous Warnings To Partners About Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Posted February 15, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The following story deals with mature subject matter. Discretion is advised.
It’s the ultimate location for people with a necessary secret to tell and no other way to say it. Welcome to InSpot.org, a small stop on the Internet for people with a big problem. It’s designed to be a place where you can tell someone you’ve known a bit too intimately that you’ve accidentally given them a sexually transmitted disease.
It sounds like the ultimate cop-out. But experts contend it’s a lot better than not saying anything at all. And they believe it will ultimately help reduce the number of STDs that are passed on from one person to another.
Here’s how it works. An infected person signs up at the site which allows them to send an e-card to the other person involved either from their own email address or anonymously. The message in both instances is the same: “I’m so sorry” followed by an explanation as to the reasons for their sorrow.
Users can choose from a variety of different messages and pick how they want to reveal the terrible news. One reads graphically, “I got screwed while screwing. You might have too.” Another says, “it’s not what you brought to the party, it’s what you left with.” A third warns, “I got diagnosed with an STI since we played. You might want to get checked, too.”
The site first went online in San Francisco in 2004, and has since spread – if that’s the right word – to eight other cities in the U.S., eight more states and two cities in Canada. And yes, Toronto is one of them. (Ottawa is the other). Romania is the other unlikely country on the list.
Those behind the concept believe in a virtual world filled with blogs, chat rooms, games and more, it’s an idea that can actually help save lives.
“It provides an easy, convenient, anonymous way for people to be responsible about notifying their partners about a possible exposure to an STD,” relates Deb Levine, of the San Francisco Internet Sexuality Information Services, which created InSpot.
She claims syphilis rates have fallen dramatically in her city since the site went online. Toronto’s version is partially sponsored by the city’s Public Health Department and has been around since last year.
To check it out, click here.
