The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity

Parents have worried for generations about changing moral values and risky behavior among young people, and the latest news seems particularly worrisome.

It came from the National Center for Health Statistics, which reported this month that births to 15- to 19-year-olds had risen for the first time in more than a decade.

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The news is troubling, but it’s also misleading. While some young people are clearly engaging in risky sexual behavior, a vast majority are not. The reality is that in many ways, today’s teenagers are more conservative about sex than previous generations.

Today, fewer than half of all high school students have had sex: 47.8 percent as of 2007, according to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, down from 54.1 percent in 1991.

A less recent report suggests that teenagers are also waiting longer to have sex than they did in the past. A 2002 report from the Department of Health and Human Services found that 30 percent of 15- to 17-year-old girls had experienced sex, down from 38 percent in 1995. During the same period, the percentage of sexually experienced boys in that age group dropped to 31 percent from 43 percent.

The rates also went down among younger teenagers. In 1995, about 20 percent said they had had sex before age 15, but by 2002 those numbers had dropped to 13 percent of girls and 15 percent of boys.

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Arch Enemy said:

It is interesting.
I still don't see why everyone is so scared of teenagers engaging in sex. Do they not realize that it's only been recently when people at these ages were considered normal for not trying to start a family? I mean, the sexual drive is not going to change according to the life expectancy of humans.

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As for that supposed epidemic of oral sex, especially among younger teenagers: national statistics on the behavior have only recently been collected, and they are not as alarming as some reports would have you believe. About 16 percent of teenagers say they have had oral sex but haven’t yet had intercourse. Researchers say children’s more relaxed attitude about oral sex probably reflects a similar change among adults since the 1950s. In addition, some teenagers may view oral sex as “safer,” since unplanned pregnancy is not an issue.

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RightinNYC said:

Another thing that always bothers me:



Oral sex IS safer for teens. Period. The average dumbass 17 year old who's hooked up with one other virgin one doesn't have AIDS, but does have functioning spermies. In that case, the risks of oral sex are basically nil, while the risks of vaginal sex are BABIES EVERYWHERE.

I just don't understand why EVERY article on this topic has to include some sentence trying to "remind" people that oral sex isn't safer than regular sex.

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Arch Enemy said:

Dude one can get preggo from Oral sex.

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1069 said:

Yeah; I guess he's never heard of a puke-baby.
Or a T-section, where they have to cut open your thorax to get the baby out.
Guess he wasn't paying attention in health class.

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Arch Enemy said:

oh and the true C section..

Cheek, right through that pretty cheek. Shouldn't have been performing oral sex.

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1069 said:

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Remember that Hilaire Belloc cautionary tale - Matilda told such dreadful lies, it made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes? I used to love it as a child when telling lies was one of the naughtiest things you could do: Matilda ended up getting burned to death.

These days, however, everything has changed and it’s the truths that children tell that make one gasp and stretch one’s eyes.

A couple of years ago, my daughter Francesca, then aged 13, told me about a party she had been to one Saturday night.

In the course of the evening, she came upon one of her friends, also aged 13, performing oral sex on a boy in the garden. The boy was standing and videoing the event on his mobile phone.

My daughter, in whom the feisty gene has always found strong expression, pulled her friend off the boy, knocked the phone out of his hand and slapped him round the face.

I apologise for shocking you, but then there are a number of things shocking about this event: the casual nature in which such an intimate act is performed in public, the young age of the participants and last, but by no means least, the fact that it is being filmed.

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RightinNYC said:

Another ****ing thing that pisses me off:

How the faceless and amoral world of cyberspace has created a deeply disturbing... generation SEX

By Olivia Lichtenstein




Okay, so this lady is OUTRAGED at the society that her daughter is being forced to grow up in. Terrible, right?

Here's a picture of her and her daughter from the article:

Here's an idea: If you're decrying the sexualization of today's society and how it's forcing women to become objects, try not dressing/wearing makeup that makes you look like a worn out whore. Or, for that matter, getting your daughter made up so you can get a picture of her with you into the paper.

Also, this is from the british papers that print daily pictures of topless chicks. Right.

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RightinNYC said:

Another ****ing thing that pisses me off:

How the faceless and amoral world of cyberspace has created a deeply disturbing... generation SEX

By Olivia Lichtenstein




Okay, so this lady is OUTRAGED at the society that her daughter is being forced to grow up in. Terrible, right?

Here's a picture of her and her daughter from the article:

Here's an idea: If you're decrying the sexualization of today's society and how it's forcing women to become objects, try not dressing/wearing makeup that makes you look like a worn out whore. Or, for that matter, getting your daughter made up so you can get a picture of her with you into the paper.

Also, this is from the british papers that print daily pictures of topless chicks. Right.

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RightinNYC said:

Another ****ing thing that pisses me off:

How the faceless and amoral world of cyberspace has created a deeply disturbing... generation SEX

By Olivia Lichtenstein




Okay, so this lady is OUTRAGED at the society that her daughter is being forced to grow up in. Terrible, right?

Here's a picture of her and her daughter from the article:

Here's an idea: If you're decrying the sexualization of today's society and how it's forcing women to become objects, try not dressing/wearing makeup that makes you look like a worn out whore. Or, for that matter, getting your daughter made up so you can get a picture of her with you into the paper.

Also, this is from the british papers that print daily pictures of topless chicks. Right.

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herenow1 said:

Please tell me that pic was taken in the 80's.

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