IRELAND'S Health Service Executive (HSE) has released a leaflet advising Irish people to masturbate and to watch pornography to protect themselves during the Covid-19 crisis.
The leaflets, which were drawn up by the HSE and the Irish Pharmacy Union, encourage people to limit their sexual activity to prevent further spread of the virus.
"Consider masturbation or remote sexual activity (eg, online) as an alternative to physical sexual activity with others," the leaflet says.
While they don't explicitly advise watching porn, many have interpreted 'online' activity to mean pornography.
These leaflets, which have been available since August, have caused a stir around the country, particularly from concerned parents who worry what their children might read if they find the pamphlets in chemists and other shops.
A Liveline listener, Robert, phoned in to the programme on Tuesday, saying he was worried the advice could cause arguments at home.
"I don't have an issue with it," he said, "but there are a lot of parents out there who deal in various different ways with their teenage offspring and sexual education in one way or another.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there were parents out there who are a little but put out if their teenage son or daughter came home and said: 'Look at this thing about masturbation and pornography online. It's in the chemist. It's alright to do that but you've been telling me it's not alright to do that'.
The HSE have released leaflets advising Irish people to masturbate and watch porn during the pandemic"Being left in a situation where I would be possibly stuck for words being one of those parents would not be a particularly healthy situation for me to be in."
Robert said he was also concerned that encouraging kids to watch porn could lead to them finding very unhealthy material online.
"I have heard anecdotally that there is some very, very rough [porn] out there if you go looking for it," he added.
Another caller, Kevin, said that from a religious perspective, people shouldn't be masturbating at all, and that sex should only be used for procreation.
"I come at this from a Jesus Christ perspective, that means that all this type of behaviour is totally and utterly wrong," he said.
"If people never had sex in their life, it wouldn't kill them. All the people in the world don't have sex.
"We were put on this earth by God and he gave us rules to live by. One of them is that the only place sex should be had is with your wife, not with any slut or woman you come across.
"Who gave the [HSE] the authority to promote [masturbation]? If we don't follow the HSE on this particular thing, it doesn't mean the whole world is going to get sick."
There were those who claimed that the leaflet never specifically mentions pornography, and that 'online' sexual activity could refer to texting or online video calls.
