If you ever feel like proving that you're STD-free with techy pizzaz, a new smartphone feature called "safe bumping" is currently being developed for the Sexually Active Youngs to fornicate safely—once completed, users can "bump phones" and use an app called MedXSafe to exchange contact information and their STD-free status.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that nearly 50% of American high schoolers who are having sex, and also comprise almost half of the 19 million new STIs reported by individuals each year. There's also that terrifying strain of drug-resistant gonorrhea. It's an alarmingly high number that the app's inventor, Dr. Michael Nusbaum, thinks MedXSafe can bring down by making an STD check between potential casual sex parters more convenient. ("If you happen to be out at a bar or a fraternity house or wherever, and you meet someone," specifies Nusbaum. Ah, youngs!)
After an all-negative checkup, MedXSafe users can ask their doctors to confirm their clean status on the app. However, should a user test positive on any portion of their STD check, no record of this or any other medical information would be divulged on the app, so it's not like your phone-bumping partner would receive a flashing red message reading "OMG, CRABS!!!11" It would only encourage the user to get treated and then tested again.
Should this kind of practice catch on at parties, it's easy to see how this could bring the teen STD rate down, but the idea of people trading clean bills of sexual health like Pokémon cards at a fraternity's "CEOs and Corporate Hos" party is a little bit farfetched.
'Bumping' Your Way to Safer Sex With a Smartphone App' [ABC News]
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