As with safer sex material there is a similar desire to explain safer sex practices in clear language, which avoids medical jargon. There is also a perceived need to target certain groups, for example gay men who make use of public lavatories for the purpose of sexual contacts, who may be most in need of the information.

It is an offence under s.43 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 to send by means of a public telecommunications service a message that is `grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character'. `Obscene' is not defined in the Act, but arguably, the definition will be the one contained in the Post Office Act 1953.

Presumably a prosecution under this provision might be possible if it was felt that advice, or counselling, relating to safer sex as given by counsellors to members of the public over the telephone was `obscene', but it is very difficult, given the one to one nature of counselling, to envisage a complaint ever arising to provide grounds for a prosecution.

In the past, there was frequent concern that providing advice to a person who might engage in a sexual act which was criminal because one of the parties was underage might result in criminal liability, in that the advisor might be viewed as an accessory to the offence.

Matters are now somewhat clearer as a result of section 73 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which applies to a specified list of child sexual offences and provides as follows:

Exceptions to aiding, abetting and counselling

(1)  A person is not guilty of aiding, abetting or counselling the commission against a child of an offence to which this section applies if he acts for the purpose of-

(a)   protecting the child from sexually transmitted infection,

(b)  protecting the physical safety of the child,

(c)   preventing the child from becoming pregnant, or

(d)  promoting the child's emotional well-being by the giving of advice, and not for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or for the purpose of causing or encouraging the activity constituting the offence or the child's participation in it.