Now, mobile app to help teens avoid 'risky' sexual behavior

With this new mobile app, it'll be easier for parents, educators and clinicians to help teens make more informed decisions about their sexual behavior.

The mobile app 'Seventeen Days,' which is based on the interactive movie of the same name, is available at no cost on iPhone, iPad and Android devices beginning.

Developed with researchers at West Virginia University, the University of Pittsburgh and Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, the goal of creating the mobile app is to get it into as many hands as possible.

Researcher Pamela Murray said that they know that teenagers are having sex, and addressing this is a very important part of their healthcare needs, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has highlighted teen pregnancy as a winnable public health battle.

Murray added that in the same way that they've reduced infectious diseases with immunization, they can reduce teen pregnancy rates and unwanted pregnancies with better communication.

Creator Julie Downs said that the goal is to create and make readily available a tool that will help teenagers make better decisions for themselves, adding that for the most part, adolescents don't want to get pregnant or to contract a disease.

Downs added that by building on the research about what goes into their decisions, they have crafted an application that will help them avoid these negative outcomes.