[johniegrad]

Experts say that the report should be a wake-up call to parents and teachers that education needs to start earlier because kids are way ahead of them

Interesting conclusion.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Re one in five:

Yeah, but how many of them were alone?

[conservativeinbflo.]

not surprising, since it was this generation that was raised by free-love boomer idiots, who walk around naked in their own homes and smoke bowls with their kids!

[gitmo]

1/5 of kids have sex before age 15, and 1/3 of their parents know it? That means 1 out of 15 parents know their young'uns are doing it? And they're allowing it? Who ARE these people?

[Gerish]

Sad findings indeed. How many of these sexual active teenagers come from broken homes?

Why would a parent let their children begin dating at the age of 13 or 14? My God, I certainly had no interest in dating at that age!

[MineralMan]

Well, at least they seem to be using contraception, since the teen pregnancy rate is down. Interestingly, we don't have any statistics on how many kids under 15 had sex back in the early 60's, when I was that age. It wasn't at all uncommon back then, either. It just wasn't studied.

I'd guess that the rate hasn't changed all that much, to tell you the truth, but I didn't do a survey of my peers back then, either.

Further, among the boys, asking whether they have had sex is likely to produce some invalid answers, I'd bet. Girls are more likely to tell the truth about such things, anonymously than boys are.

[Wright is right!]

"Brown and others said there was reason to believe that in the years since the data was collected, fewer young teenagers had been having sex. For those 14 and younger, according to federal data, the birthrate declined 43 percent from 1991 to 2001, while the decline for older teenagers was 27 percent."

Fallacious conclusion. They use a declining birth rate to conclude that fewer of these Young Americans are having sex. I would suggest that a much more likely factor in the declining birth rate amongst this group would be the use of various means of birth control. They're still having sex, they're simply not getting pregnant as often.

Michael

[bimbo]

Experts say that the report should be a wake-up call to parents and teachers that education needs to start earlier because kids are way ahead of them

Start earlier ??? The kids have been getting sex instruction, cleverly disguised as "sex education," since the second grade. Sexual Instruction without a firm set of morals already in place has been a disaster. I'm waiting to watch all the finger pointing that happens with this.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Does this count "monicas?" The true number is probably higher since kids don't view it any differently than X42.

[Valpal1]

"First, discourage early one-on-one dating, and second, be very, very leery of significant age differences," Brwon said.

Now why didn't the reporter follow up on this little hint? The dirtly little secret is that the younger the teen mother, the older the father is likely to be, often by 5 years or more.

[Koblenz]

And just think, Mary Kay LeTourneau is in jail too... IF she were out of prison, what would these numbers be?

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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% ?

[Timesink]

More like "one in five US adolescents CLAIMS to have had sex before turning 15." It's cool to say you have, and humiliating to admit you haven't. Those are very, very strong cultural biases to overcome, and they won't be overcome just by telling the students that "nobody's going to be able to tell you're the one that filled out this form."

[grasshopper2]

The data in the report comes from three federally financed surveys of young people and four smaller data sets.

I am struck by the fact that it's permissible to even conduct these surveys on minors. I do not want my children to get these kinds of questions. Is it right for the state to ask young children : "have you ever had sex?"