One in five US adolescents has sex before turning 15

Taipei Times ^ | 5.21.03

[Valpal1]

No, both the birth rate and the abortion rate is down. Less pregnancy=less sex not more birth control.

Teens aren't very good at using birth control consistently or correctly.

[mercy]

I'm pretty sure that at least a third of my peers at age sixteen in 1966 were no longer virgins. I'm surprised that four fifths of fifteen year olds have yet no actual carnal knowledge.

[Lost Highway]

About 20 percent of adolescents in the US have had sexual intercourse before their 15th birthday

It must be true. Kids don't lie about being virgins do they?

[Enemy Of The State]

I thought it was 3 in 15 :-P

[Enemy Of The State]

only Brittney Spears

[Gerish]

Okay you are definitely older than me! I was 14 in 1980!

I am sure back in the 50's your parents were not worried about you having sex at 14. At 14 I was more interested in sports and my various friends. Dating was out of the question - my parents wouldn't let me date until well after 16 years of age, and even then it was well supervised. I am thankful they were like that although I will admit at the time I thought they were so out of touch with reality. I just feel that most parents today push their children into adulthood way too fast. If you let kids date at 14 without any sort of restriction or supervision, you are asking for trouble.

[Lost Highway]

only Brittney Spears

I never thought of it that way. She must be the only entertainer lying that she is a virgin.

[Portnoy]

When I was 13-14 Comic Books were $0.30 an issue.

Now Comic Books are $2.99 an issue and kids are having sex at earlier ages (13-14)

'Nuff Said.

[Wright is right!]

"Teens aren't very good at using birth control consistently or correctly."

My contention is that they've been getting better at it the last 10 years.

Michael

[optik_b]

"Hollyweird will not rest until everyone is having orgies with men, women, boys, girls and animals. I honestly believe that is their agenda"

No their agenda is just to sell products. Sex sells. Greed is the only motivation.

[Ingtar]

I have noticed, in the last few years, that they no longer report the teen pregnancy rate. They now report the birth rate among teens. This lowers the numbers, as they are no longer counting teens that have abortions as having been pregnant. If you add the teen abortion numbers to the teen birth numbers, I wonder if we have made any progress at all.

[Quick1]

Really, you know families like this? I sure don't.

[Blue Screen of Death]

What is even more shocking is that almost 100% of adolescents are the direct result of sex.

The only exception is the kid that lives next door. He is 13, wears his baseball hat cocked off to the side, pants around his knees, spits, cusses and seldom showers. His parents are wonderful people who, I am sure, discovered this kid in a prenatal state growing on some ancient cottage cheese in the back of their refridgerator.

[Blue Screen of Death]

What is even more shocking is that almost 100% of adolescents are the direct result of sex.

The only exception is the kid that lives next door. He is 13, wears his baseball hat cocked off to the side, pants around his knees, spits, cusses and seldom showers. His parents are wonderful people who, I am sure, discovered this kid in a prenatal state growing on some ancient cottage cheese in the back of their refridgerator.

[Valpal1]

Your contention is that teens are smarter/more responsible than they were 10 years ago?

Okay.

[ClearCase_guy]

About 20 percent of adolescents in the US have had sexual intercourse before their 15th birthday -- and one in seven of the sexually experienced 14-year-old girls has been pregnant

If my math is correct, this works out to 1.4% of all girls getting pregnant when they are 14. One never knows, but that seems pretty darn high.

[Maelstrom]

They indicate that it is probably a *drop* in promiscuity.

Hmmm...

I'm not sure I buy that given the "sexual education" going on...I'm more likely to believe that a drop would be from abstinence teaching.

[optik_b]

If you guys think the only teenagers that are having sex before 15 are kids from druggie parents and liberals you are totally out of touch with society. You are correc tif you're saying that the teenagers who are stupid and actually have kids at that age are most likely welfare kids, lonely, low self-esteem want to be a mother to have "someone who loves them."

But the majority of teens who are having sex are not having kids and they tend to be having oral sex and using contraception so they do not have kids.

Kids these days are inundated with sexual imagery from madison avenue starting at a young age.

Here's a good article about it:
http://www.familyfirst.net/pressroom/calvinkline.asp

[SunTzuWu]

20% of 14 year-olds? I don't by that for a minute. I'm willing to believe that figure for 16 and 17 year-olds but, kids 14 and under have other things on their minds.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Any thoughts on where the demographics lie as to that 20% ?