Njagi Joan
PhD Candidate, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Correspondence:
Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2023 Dec;31(4):2291908. doi: 10.1080/26410397.2023.2291908. Epub 2024 Jan 10.
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR) programmes for 10-17-year-old adolescents in many African contexts are school-based and often aim to manage the risks associated with adolescent sexuality. Such programmes are critiqued for adopting pathologising, biomedical, moralistic and/or authoritarian approaches. Critiques of conventional ASRHR initiatives and technological advancements have resulted in an increased use of digital technologies to facilitate ASRHR. However, there is a gender and age divide whereby adolescent minors, particularly girls, remain excluded, unreached, or unable to exercise their agency. Despite the existence of a gender and age divide in digital SRH platforms, the divide remains uninterrogated. Data were collected in four phases from November 2019 to April 2022 using a qualitative mixed methods design that included review of online information and communication technology (ICT)-based sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) websites and platforms, 18 interviews with implementers of the platforms, and seven focus group discussions with adolescent girls. Even though ICTs have demonstrated their ability to navigate socio-cultural tensions surrounding SRHR, an age and gender divide poses a barrier for them to achieve this anticipated potential as adolescent girls below the age of 18 have the least access in Kenya. Socio-cultural norms surrounding adolescent sexuality in Kenya continue to inform ASRHR policies and programmes that exclude 10-17-year-old girls, particularly those in low-income urban contexts. Such exclusionary norms permeate digital spaces, inhibiting the potential of digital spaces to offer comprehensive and holistic services to adolescent girls who are not legally adult.
在许多非洲背景下，针对10至17岁青少年的性与生殖健康及权利（ASRHR）项目以学校为基础，其目标通常是管理与青少年性行为相关的风险。这类项目因采用病态化、生物医学化、道德化和/或专制的方法而受到批评。对传统ASRHR倡议和技术进步的批评导致数字技术在促进ASRHR方面的使用增加。然而，存在性别和年龄差异，青少年未成年人，尤其是女孩，仍然被排除在外、无法接触到相关信息或无法行使其自主权。尽管数字性与生殖健康平台存在性别和年龄差异，但这一差异仍未得到审视。从2019年11月到2022年4月分四个阶段收集数据，采用定性混合方法设计，包括审查基于在线信息通信技术（ICT）的性与生殖健康及权利（SRHR）网站和平台、对平台实施者进行18次访谈，以及与少女进行7次焦点小组讨论。尽管信息通信技术已证明其有能力应对围绕性与生殖健康及权利的社会文化紧张关系，但年龄和性别差异成为它们发挥这一预期潜力的障碍，因为在肯尼亚，18岁以下的少女获得相关信息的机会最少。肯尼亚围绕青少年性行为的社会文化规范继续影响着性与生殖健康及权利政策和项目，这些政策和项目将10至17岁的女孩排除在外，尤其是低收入城市地区的女孩。这种排他性规范渗透到数字空间，抑制了数字空间为未达到法定成年年龄的少女提供全面和整体服务的潜力。
