HIV Text Message Program Targets Underage Boys Behind Parents’ Backs
- RADAR News
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
The NIH-funded Project SHAG, an 18-month trial, targets 5,000 boys aged 13 to 22 who have engaged in anal sex. It entails bombarding boys as young as 13 with graphic texts about sex and PrEP drugs, all while cutting parents out completely. Run by the Center for Innovative Public Health Research (CiPHR) in California, it aims to increase HIV and STI testing, promote PrEP and PEP, and track HIV incidence among sexual minority males across the United States. Social media influencers promote Project SHAG by luring kids on platforms they’re glued to while parents are left clueless. Gays Against Groomers sees this as a “progressive” agenda to sexualize youth, using phones to bypass family oversight.
The program is led by Michele Ybarra, a Johns Hopkins adjunct with a history of tech-based programs, including a teen pregnancy prevention program for sexual minority girls (TP2AH000035) and Uganda’s CyberSenga (R01 MH080662). Robert Garofalo, a Northwestern trans clinic leader known for fundraising for “trans youth” via Fred Says, serves as editor-in-chief for Transgender Health. Laura Bogart, from RAND, specializes in HIV disparities. Daniel Feaster from University of Miami, with 30 years in HIV trials, handles data analysis. Sheana Bull from University of Colorado focuses on mobile health interventions for STIs. CEO Joseph Schwab (@joeschwab) leverages tech experience from Apple and Sony. Partners include GLSEN, Harvard, UCSF, Michigan State University, and Mbarara University in Uganda, backed by NIH grant U01HD108738.
Recruitment uses pure predator tactics. Ads on Instagram (@projectshag), Snapchat (@projectshag), and dating apps target “guys into guys,” aiming to hook 6,667 youths to get 5,000 participants over 27 months, with monthly targets of 100 youths under 18. Kids visit a website, complete an eligibility screener requiring anal sex in the past 12 months, English proficiency, exclusive phone ownership with unlimited texting, internet access for surveys, and no ties to other HIV programs or SHAG participants. Then, they are randomized into a sexual health intervention experimental group or a lifestyle control group, receiving 8 to 15 daily texts for eight weeks, followed by booster messages for months.
These texts, recycled from CiPHR’s Guy2Guy and Girl2Girl programs, link to condom demo videos, coach kids to pitch PrEP to partners, and pair them with Text Buddies for chats, monitored only for vague signs of unhealthy behavior. For 13-year-olds, messages like, “PrEP is a pill you take every day or a shot you get every 2 months. It reduces your risk of HIV by 99%,” promote routine testing every three months and set these kids up with LGBTQ-specific doctors via LGBTQ+ Health Directory. Built on programs like In This toGether for Ugandan youth, the intervention uses generalized linear models to estimate effects on HIV incidence, PrEP/PEP use, HIV status, and STI rates, with longitudinal models for outcomes over time, sent to devices parents can’t monitor.
SHAG waives parental permission for kids under 18, claiming it protects them from victimization if outed. Staff, trained in Human Subjects Protections, conduct phone assessments with minors to confirm their capacity to consent, using a modified Evaluation to Consent Form to evaluate their understanding of risks, such as parents discovering texts; those who hesitate are excluded. HIV test kits, using OraQuick for photo-verified results, are mailed in secret, using plain packages to friends’ addresses or Amazon lockers, with USPS tracking so kids can pick them up. Younger boys, aged 13 to 17, or 18-year-olds still in high school, can skip testing and self-report HIV status without proof. The protocol spends pages on these covert logistics, outlining a deliberate secrecy pact, with consent forms emailed only if requested for safety reasons.
Ybarra’s past, including CyberSenga in Uganda and BullyDown for middle schoolers, shows a pattern: using tech to bypass parents and reprogram kids. Garofalo’s trans clinics and fundraising, Bogart’s focus on HIV disparities, and Feaster’s data work align with this operation, all supported by GLSEN’s efforts to promote gender ideology in schools. Gays Against Groomers views this as an initiative that brands itself as “progressive,” but in actuality, it is a well-funded project backed by elite institutions that may contribute to the normalization of high-risk sexual behavior in youth, override parental authority, and erode boundaries between children and adults, all under the guise of “care” and “safety.” It is anything but.
References
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