Here’s an e-mail no one wants to receive, and it’s not spam.
Thanks to a new Web site, inSpot.org, people can anonymously send e-mails, known as e-cards, to alert their partners they may have been infected with a sexually transmitted disease. Through the site, visitors are able to select one of six e-cards with various messages, urging their partners to get tested for STDs.
The site was created in 2004 by Deborah Levine and the non-profit, California-based organization Internet Sexuality Information Services or ISIS, in response to the rise of syphilis among gay men in San Francisco, California.
“It’s based on the concept of an e-vite,” said Andrew Woodruff, program director for ISIS. “We wanted to figure out a way for men to tell their partners if they’ve been exposed to an STD. It was initially for gay men, but we had focus groups and decided the service should be available for everybody.”
According to Woodruff, the site was simply a result of society’s growing obsession with the Internet, specifically Internet dating and online hook-ups.
“Increasingly, more and more people are using the Internet to find partners and meet people for sex, so it makes sense to use it for sex education,” Woodruff said. “It’s only logical people use it to notify their partners they’ve been exposed to an STD.”
On the site, users select one of six messages, two of which are available in Spanish, to send to up to six partners at a time. Each e-card has a message similar to a greeting card that informs someone they have been exposed to an STD. For instance, one card reads, “I got screwed while screwing, you might have too. Get checked for STDs if you haven’t recently,” and another reads, “It’s not what you brought to the party, it’s what you left with. I left with an STD. You might have too. Get checked out soon.”
After choosing an e-card, users can write a short, personal message to go along with the card and then must select the appropriate STD their partner may be infected with from a drop box. The e-cards can be sent anonymously, if chosen, or the user can have their e-mail address included in the e-card.
Once the e-card is received, recipients are taken to the inSpot Web site where they can learn more about STDs and find a clinic in their area. Although the site can be used by anyone in the country, inSpot currently only has partnerships with nine U.S. cities where people can be referred to for STD testing. Creators of the site and ISIS are in the works of developing relationships with agencies and clinics in all 50 states, Woodruff said.
While creators of the site don’t have information on the number of site users who access STD testing as a result of receiving an e-card, according to a recent article in Plos Medicine, an online journal published by the Public Library of Science, since it’s creation, the site has had more than 30,000 people send over 49,500 e-cards and logs an estimated 750 hits daily.
“The response to the site has been very positive,” Woodruff said. “It’s very hard to tell someone you may have exposed them to an STD. A lot of folks who hook-up on the internet may only have an e-mail address and it may be the only contact information they have. In person or over-the-phone contact may not be an option for everyone.”
A UT student, who wished to remain anonymous, was infected with chlamydia by her ex-boyfriend and said she would have preferred to receive an e-mail telling her to get checked as opposed to her partner saying nothing.
“The person I was with didn’t tell me anything; I had to find out on my own,” she said. “I would’ve been happy with a call, an e-mail, a text; anything. Just letting me know would have been better than me finding out on my own. If this Web site will lead to earlier detections of STDs, then I think it’s a great thing.”
The non-profit organization ISIS was founded in 2001 and its mission is to use technology to communicate critical sex information, Woodruff said. Along with inSpot.org, the organization has created several other safe sex and sex education Web sites, including HookingUpOnline.org, which shows users safe ways to look for sex partners online.
While some critics have accused the site of being impersonal and downplaying the seriousness of STDs, Woodruff said there’s no “right way” to tell someone you may have infected them with an STD.
“Regardless of how you do it, it’s always better you tell someone,” Woodruff said. “InSpot is one way to do it. People who receive the cards are very thankful. We believe people need as many tools as possible to help them communicate about stuff that isn’t that easy to talk about.”
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