Health | Condom codes let users "check in" with smartphones | Seattle Times Newspaper

If you knew that everyone in your neighborhood was having sex, and wearing a condom, would that encourage you to start thinking about safe sex?

That's the theory, or part of it, behind Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest's distribution of 55,000 bar-coded condoms to community colleges and universities and its own health centers throughout Western Washington.

These aren't just regular condoms. The QR codes on the wrappers can be scanned by smartphones, connecting users to a mobile website that plot their approximate location and ask a few non-identifying questions such as age range and questions like: "The Safe Sex Was ... " — with choices ranging from "ah-mazing ... " to "things can only improve from here."

Then, your encounter will become a little blue dot on a searchable map at WhereDidYouWearIt.com, where you can zoom in on your neighborhood or area of interest.

The condom distribution by Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country is part of National Condom Week, a safe-sex campaign.

The idea for the "Where Did You Wear It?" campaign, says Nathan Engebretson, PPGNW's new-media coordinator, is to target college students and millenials, already comfy with social media, to promote healthy sexuality by announcing that they're "proud to wear protection."


Health | Condom codes let users "check in" with smartphones | Seattle Times Newspaper