Half of Singaporean youths think premarital sex is okay: survey
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 January 2007 1845 hrs

	Photos  of

SINGAPORE : Forty-six percent of youths think it is okay to have sex before marriage, and 55 percent of youths feel that life will not be complete if they do not get married and have children.

These are just some of the findings from a Singapore Polytechnic survey of 800 youths, aged between 15 and 29 years old.

Despite having gone through national education at school, 37 percent of Singaporean youths say they are not patriotic.

In fact, more than half want to migrate overseas if given a chance.

Indian youths are the most ready to migrate, at 67 percent, compared to 60 percent of Malays and 49 percent of Chinese.

"After coming back from travelling, they find that other countries have much more to offer than Singapore, which is very boring," says one youth.

60 percent of youths are also not interested in local politics, but half of them want to see more opposition members in parliament.

The survey also looked at issues of social concern.

54 percent of youths surveyed think it is okay to use vulgarities when talking to friends, and half find homosexuality acceptable.

"To youths, it's common knowledge that homosexuals exist in Singapore. In fact, if you ask any youth, he'll say that he knows at least one homosexual friend," says another youth.

"There is gap between me, the way I think and the way youths in Singapore think. But I'm not surprised because they are under so much more different influences than what I went through. They've got 100 movie channels and they've got the Internet," says V Maheantharan, director of School of Business at Singapore Polytechnic.

46 percent of youths are on the Internet for five hours or more a day, and 56 percent say they are not bothered by copyright issues related to downloading movies off the Internet.

40 percent of respondents also blog and 48 percent share original content, for example, artwork, stories and videos.

12 percent say they don't go to the cinema as often because they are downloading movies off the internet.

When it comes to money and career, half of the respondents say that remuneration is the most important factor when choosing a job, and 47 percent aspire to be an entrepreneur.

Youths also say that the three things most important to them are family, freedom and health. - CNA /ls