Shockingly, almost half of 16-35 year olds think that HIV is not something that could ever affect them, despite the fact that every 30 seconds a young person is infected with HIV.

Whilst more than 60% of young people surveyed1 admitted to being uncomfortable discussing safe sex, 72% of respondants surveyed admitted they found it easier to express emotions using emojis and more than three quarters admitted that they use emojis to discuss sex and relationships.

The unveiling of an unofficial safe sex emoji is the latest move in Durex’s ongoing #CondomEmoji campaign which calls for Unicode to put a safe sex emoji on every smartphone in the world in order to help young people communicate about safe sex more easily.

 Durex Global Category Director, Volker Sydow, said: “Until Unicode recognise the need for a Condom Emoji and reverse their decision to put a safe sex emoji on every smartphone across the globe, we must continue to  demonstrate that there is the desire for such a thing.  We believe the naming of “Umbrella with Raindrops” as the unofficial safe sex emoji will be a significant step towards helping young people put safe sex back on the agenda. We are asking people to show their support for the cause on World AIDS Day 2016 by using this unofficial safe sex emoji and the hashtag #CondomEmoji.