San Francisco Blog

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Can an e-condom protect you from computer viruses? That's not exactly what health department officials in New York City were hoping to figure out when they kicked off their e-condom page (though it'd be interesting to see what's cached on their hard drives, no doubt).

The program is simply a reminder -- and with St. V's Day around the corner, a timely one -- to employ a jimmy hat when engaging in the sex act. The e-condom's wrapper -- which, we must say, is damn good looking -- was created by San Francisco industrial designer Yves Behar.

While some of New York City's endeavors at high-tech health work strike us as creepy (the "You've got Syphilis!" e-card for example), this one sounds  like an unmitigated good. Yet, the condom-use instructions befitting an army training film from the 1950s on its health department's Web page (Use a new condom for each sex act; put the condom on when the penis is erect, before sexual contact occurs. Unroll it all the way down. ...) make us uncomfortable.

After all, what does it say about society that someone could know how to operate a computer and navigate to the city of New York's health department Web site, but doesn't know how to put on a condom?