[Abarricoss]

Culture plays are larger roll than classes.

Jon Miller

[Gcromqgb]

there is nothing on the planet that will stop the human sex drive... sorry, play again boys...

piece

[Weislenalkata]

i was watching something while i was in scotland on the dutch sex ed programs... fascinating stuff, really.

[Uhmavano]

I thought it was a well-known fact that the best way to get an adolescent to do something is to tell them not to

(especially when every fiber in their brain is telling them the opposite)

Of course, if they really had JC they would listen to their parents

[brorialsibers]

Originally posted by Gibsie
Do most regular kids really lose their virginity before the age of 15? Shocking. no. the vast majority of the people in my year are still virgins. (15-16)

[dmitrynts]

If abstinence is a failure, then so are the other programs if neither have an effect on adolescent sexual behaviour. Wrong the point of nonabstinence programs is to promote safe sex. The article mentions nothing about use of protection amongst abstinence-taught students and regular-taught students but I would say that anecdotally students in regular programs have a higher use of protection.

no. the vast majority of the people in my year are still virgins. (15-16) I would hope that 53 year olds are not virgins, but remember, betor's Internet identity "goes to a private school". 14 years 9 months seems pretty young, but I would buy 15 or 16 as an acceptable average.

[soydaykam]

These are all about how real sex ed really does effect the habits of young adults. They really are better informed and they really do practice safe sex more often. Unfortunately, due to what can only be called an evil ideology there are NO federally funded sex ed programs in the US except for the failed abstinence only nonsense. (Cite in first link)

http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/pub...t/fssexcur.htm

http://www.planned.org/site/PageServ...alityEducation

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NG7VO2LUV1.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGUNCQHH51.DTL

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/rep...omprehens.html

http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/sexeducation.htm

[rozalinasi]

WTF is abstince?

[12Jasoumemoobia]

Originally posted by C0ckney
in this country there is a lot of sex education in schools, and yet still we have the highest teen pregnancy rate in western europe. "we have the highest teen pregnancy rate in western europe"....therefore we need..."a lot of sex education in schools" perhaps?

Just like the safest towns aren't always the ones with the most cops on the streets...

[Roorseprate]

sex ed does nothing...
TRUST...
there are other ways...

[WelcomeMe]

Originally posted by C0ckney


err...the rather obvious point is that having this sort of sex education in schools, which we do, doesn't mean that the message gets through.

not that i'm arguing against sex education, but in this country at least, it doesn't seem to solve the problems which it is meant to, i.e. teen pregnancy and of course STDs. it's the sexualisation of anyone whose age is in double figures that's the cause.

i remember once listening to some rock music on TV a few years back. Some family friends came round with daughters around 11 and 13 or something like that. The impression I got was that the parents didn't want their children to see the rock vids..despite them being fairly alright for all ages.

However, I frequently saw at their place the same children watching hiphop videos of girls wearing next to nothing cavorting around amidst sexually explicit lyrics (oh yeah, they were censored out ).

That's the problem

[obHQNsY2]

forgiven...

[Thunderzee]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
So abstinence is a failure when kids start at the same time as when they have sex education?

If abstinence is a failure, then so are the other programs if neither have an effect on adolescent sexual behaviour.

abstinance aims to limit sex to married couples, so I guess if that doesn't happen (unless you would claim the abstinance program leads to consumed teen marriages) the program fails.

The other programs are hoping teens will have safe-sex. They have no aim to the age when people have sex. They therefore cannot fail on the age issue alone.

[DownloadMan]

Originally posted by Starchild


Just from talking to friends at uni, the type of sex education they got in the UK seems rather pants to the one I got in Ontario.

There is also the cultural element like Jon said. Because there are more teenage pregnancies, its more acceptable to be a pregnant teenager. Plus you get a nice little paypacket off the state for it too. More than they could earn down the local cafe.

[erepsysoulperj]

I'd say a few young people are lying on the survey about having sex or when they first had sex. I believe 16-17 is the truthful answer and a lot of people are falsely claiming they're sexually active at 14.

[Ruiceara]

Most my freinds (from college and later) lost their virginity much later.

Jon Miller

[Suvaxal]

That's where you are wrong. Real sex education, the type which teaches about contraception and STDs along with how to prevent them, has been proven to modify young people's behavior. They still have sex but they're at least having safe sex. I had the so-called 'sex education'. No one ever told me about HPV and the endemic rates of transmission.

The best part of the whole lesson was when they had folks sharing glasses. Some of them had a basic substance in them, others did not. I presume they infected one in 10 of the glasses at the start.

What was interesting is what happened when one of the colours first turned red. Everyone who shared a glass turned the same colour.

Maybe to you that's abstinence education, but it hammers home that no one is invincible.

There really is no 'safe' sex. Whenever you choose to have sex with someone you are putting your life in that person's hand in trusting them not to have an std or hoping that the little slip of rubber holds.

That's a massive step in the right direction which does everyone good while the head in the sand approach, advocated by the religious lunatic fringe, accomplishes nothing. Young people still have sex but they remain entirely ignorant of birth control and how to stop STDs. Well glad to see you have respect for people to whom you disagree. The sex education you advocate is more about putting bananas on condoms and giving out flavoured ones then it is about the cold hard facts about disease incidence.

[Badyalectlawl]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi

The article says nothing of the sort. It doesn't even reference the actual study done. All it claims is that kids with abstinence education started having sex at 14. Look at the link in post 17 and you will find everything he has said is true.

As for Abstinence Only being as good as Comprehensive Sex Ed... You're just refusing to acknowledge the truth. As cited in the link in post 17 virtually all studies show that with real sex ed the use of protection among sexually active young people increases dramatically. The difference is the goal of abstinence programs is to scare people into not having sex and in this they are a dismal failure. The goal of real sex ed is to educate people about human sexuality, the various diseases out there, and how to avoid those diseases if they decide to have sex. Real sex ed works and abstinence only doesn't.

[in4wikiu]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
There are many other things that we can avoid by simply changing our behaviour And one of them isn't the sexual habits of teenagers.

[paydayus]

I don't see the rationale of saying that all teenagers will have sex no matter what we do when many choose to wait.

Because a lot of them are going to anyway.