Following Charlie Sheen's HIV bombshell, Durex calls for safe sex emojis

Sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, are still a huge issue. Unfortunately, many young people no longer fear HIV because they see people, like Magic Johnson, living normal lives with the disease. While I am happy that Johnson has continued to survive and prosper, not everyone is as lucky. Safe sex is still extremely important. Charlie Sheen is just the latest high-profile victim. Many more non-famous people are getting HIV, herpes and more.

In an effort to drive this issue home, Durex, the condom maker, is calling for safe sex emojis to be created. Before you call it unnecessary or silly, remember -- young people are communicating with emojis more and more nowadays. Maybe there is some value here. What do you think?

"Today -- in the weeks ahead of World AIDS Day 2015 -- Durex, a leading global sexual well-being brand has launched a worldwide campaign calling for the creation of the world’s first official safe sex condom emojis. Emojis are a crucial part of how young couples connect and research suggests that the creation of official safe sex emojis are vital to inserting messages around protection into their sexual conversations", says Durex.

Karen Chisholm, Marketing Director, Durex USA explains, "in light of this research, the Durex brand is asking 1 million people to use and share the hashtag #CondomEmoji to represent their support of the creation of the world’s first official safe sex emojis by the Unicode Consortium. Emojis of this sort will enable young people to overcome embarrassment around the discussion of safe sex, encourage conversation and raise awareness of the importance of using condoms in protecting against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV and AIDS".

Durex shares some eye-opening statistics below.

• 80 percent of 18-25 year olds find it easier to express themselves using emojis and more than half of respondents regularly using emojis when discussing sex
• 84 percent of 18-25 year olds said they feel more comfortable talking about sex using emojis
• More than one-third of 18-25 year olds claim not to care about safe sex and nearly half think that HIV will never affect them or their friends

You know what? At first I did find it a bit silly, but I will proudly stand behind any initiative that starts conversations about safe sex. If emojis can keep people healthy and prevent unwanted pregnancies, so be it. With that said, I think parents should do more to make their children less embarrassed about sex, so they can discuss it with actual words.

Will you join me in sharing the #CondomEmoji hashtag on Twitter? Tell me in the comments.