I’m 19, and I haven’t had sex. My sister, who’s graduating from college in a few months and getting married after that, also has not had sex (although I have no actual proof of that). So, y’know, not all kids have sex.
Although I suppose that a fair amount of that might be due to the fact that all four of my parents’ children actually respect them and care about what they think.
Also because I haven’t had a girlfriend since seventh grade.
Yeah, my little brother thinks I’m a virgin too.
I also don’t know what the hell you mean by “actually respect them and care about what they think.” So are you saying that teenagers who HAVE had sex don’t give a crap about their parents?
To be fair, the included HPV in the count, and 80% of adult women have had it by age 50.
Well, you know, you just can’t trust those people. We all know what’s good for us, but there’s no accounting for the them. They’re uncivilized and uneducable.
I disagree.
All the girls who said no to me kept me safe from STD’s. 
But is it because these girls don’t know the actual mechanics of STIs, or is it that they are aware of the risks and just don’t give a shit and/or think they can beat the odds? I’m all for progressive sex education, but maybe you reach a point where people are going to ignore you regardless, like an anti-speeding campaign.
This is terrible. I recommend that these naughty, naughty girls be given a stern talking-to and a firm spanking.
I could probably schedule enough time to assist with the discipline of any suitable 19-year olds in the vicinity of central Florida. Parents, you owe it to your children.
I think this is the point that people don’t get–just because sex ed involves how to use a condom doesn’t mean it doesn’t still stress that abstinence is the best way to avoid STDs and pregnancy. We got failure rates for all forms of protection, so we knew which ones worked better, but also that they all had a chance of failure, which I think is a great piece of information for teens to have.
Wasn’t there a study a while ago that showed that there is no difference in sexual activity among teens in different types of sex ed? I would think that that would be the best piece of evidence that abstinence-only sex ed doesn’t work.
Hrm, perhaps this is showing my ignorance, but I had no idea that abstinence only was now some kind of hard national policy in education. I thought it was controversial because it was BEING introduced.
What percentage of schools teach abstinence only in comparison to more holistic sex ed programs and, perhaps more importantly, in comparison to schools that have no sex ed at all (counting those that have none BECAUSE of abstinence only controversy in the abstinence only camp)?
What about the girls who are trying to get pregnant? Some want to leave home, others want a little critter to love them unconditionally, or maybe some want to piss off the parents. Just pointing out that getting pregnant precludes the use of a condom.
Yes there are definately people like this:
(for reference I saw this linked I’ve never actually watched this show. It looks pretty bad though)
But they are still (probably/hopefully) the minority, and incredibly stupid.
For the reference I’ve never had sex at 18, but I also have Social Anxiety Disorder and have only rarely gone out with FRIENDS,let alone a girldfriend. So it’s not like I’m ever going to. You may consider me moot for statistics purposes.
Right. Of that 26% it was mostly HPV " The teens were tested for four of the most common infections: human papilloma virus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of the teens studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and genital herpes, 2 percent."
Note an absence of syphilis and “the clap” (gonorrhea) in the stats.
Counting HPV in there is bogus. From wiki “Estimates of prevalence vary from 14% to 90%…One study found that, during 2003–2004, at any given time, 26.8% of women aged 14 to 59 were infected with at least one type of HPV.”
So, assuming a class of “all women”= 27% HPV+ chlamydia+ trichomoniasis+ genital herpes= a number *around *35% or so, then teen girls have a lower % of STD than the general population of women aged 14 to 59.
It’s still too high, but the article uses alarmist stats. :dubious:
I can’t debate the proportion of them except to say I’ve met some since becoming a teacher. Some bring the baby to school like a trophy…there doesn’t seem to be the stigma you might expect.
This is one of those great social issues I honestly don’t care about. My honest feeling is that everyone I went to High School with knew you could get diseases from fucking, no one cared.
I honestly think there’s a huge portion of the population that just doesn’t give two-shits and isn’t going to use a condom.
In one wing of my family most of the boys had children themselves before they were 18. These boys weren’t totally stupid, I knew them as children, I knew them as teens. These weren’t kids who were raised to be idiots–they just didn’t care. They knew that fucking = babies if you don’t use some form of birth control. They didn’t like condoms and their girl friends either didn’t like or didn’t bother to get the pill, so babies ensued.
In Africa I think a lot of sex education has been pushed, trying to get Africans to use condoms in order to stop the spread of HIV. African men just simply aren’t biting.
I think teaching safe sex is going to reach a certain portion of the population and that is it. I think you could pound it into people’s heads 200 times a day and even the smartest person who just isn’t inclined to worry about safe sex is still going to stick their dick in and isn’t going to give a damn about the consequences. There’s a reason people drive drunk, smoke, eat to excess, run red lights, and yes, fuck without protection. I don’t disagree that some level of education is necessary but I also think it’s not really all that useful. I think if someone can’t learn in about a single hour class session that unprotected sex can lead to STDs, and some STDs = very nasty, those people are either too stupid to ever figure it out or they are just chronically prone to not caring about such things. Anyway, I don’t care what percentage of people stupid enough to fall into these situations gets infected with STDs.
See, that’s what I mean. Someone that mind-numbingly stupid deserves what they get.
The smart people are going to insulate themselves from the diseases that these idiots perpetrate. I’ve had sex with many different people, I’m in my 50s and have never had a single STD. I’ve also never gotten anyone pregnant.
This isn’t rocket science.
Meh, this is what bugs me. Teenagers are naturally curious. We’re supposed to believe that despite their natural curiosity and proclivity to learn they are:
Getting STDs because they didn’t know that at a very basic level you can get a disease from fucking someone without protection.
Getting pregnant because they didn’t know that fucking without protection can make babies.
Getting in car accidents because they don’t know driving dangerously can = car accident
Getting arrested for DUI/causing accidents while driving drunk without knowing that driving drunk can lead to these things
And et cetera. I just don’t buy into this “more education cures all ills” stuff. I have a low regard for most Americans (and people in general) but my regard for American teenagers isn’t so low that I think them, as a whole, wholly ignorant of who STDs are spread, how babies are made, what contributes to car accidents, and why driving drunk = bad. I think teenagers do these things because they just don’t have any internal controls which stop them. I think they lack these internal controls at a greater rate than older Americans. However drunk driving remains an epidemic despite increasingly harsh laws and tons of money spent trying to pound it home that driving drunk kills. People just don’t factor that shit in when they are drunk at a bar or a friend’s house and need to get home and don’t feel like calling a taxi. Someone who might be inclined to take such a risk anyway is definitely going to take such a risk while drunk. (Shit, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d see a drastic decrease in how much STDs are spread and unwanted pregnancies if people didn’t fuck while drunk so often.)
I suspect that they know that, but are possibly using ‘alternate’ means of protection, most likely learned from other students. One of the benefits of the education I got was knowing which methods worked and which didn’t, so now that I am sexually active I have a good idea of what options are open to me. If they don’t know the relative risk levels, they may be using what they think is acceptable protection that really isn’t (doubling up condoms anyone?)
There’s always going to be some portion that doesn’t listen. But if teens have that knowledge, then they’re more likely to use it. Sex ed isn’t just about 'sex can cause pregnancy and STDs", but “if you decide to have sex anyways, here’s how to minimize the risks”. You know what they say–a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
BTW, there’s one thing I’ve always wondered about but have never run into–do guys really claim that they’re ‘too big’ for a condom? I’ve seen it very effectively debunked (and think every girl should see that demonstration), but since I didn’t screw around in high school (or, well, ever) I have no idea what guys really say to get some action.
When the religious types come back flappin’ that abstinence is the only thing we can teach our kids to protect them from “Teh Evils”, I point out to them that Abstinence didn’t do jack shit for the Virgin Mary…
That usually makes them really unhappy, but it’s fun to watch them twitch a while…
Well, I think the thing is, condoms are tight. Really *rather *tight, by design, on a body part that’s not usually enclosed. I don’t have a penis to be certain, but I’m fairly sure I’d find even a moderately tight bit of Saran Wrap on my *finger *to be irksome at first, and I’m used to wearing gloves. So they think it feels too tight when in fact it fits just fine.
And it’s not like you can ask the pharmacist to check the fit for you, ya know?
We did not have an abstinence only policy when I was in middle school, but there was a surprising amount of misinformation. One way abstinence was being pushed was because “condoms don’t stop AIDs. The AIDs virus is much smaller than the whole, so it can get through where sperm cannot.” The teacher then showed us a stuffed sperm thing and a bouncy ball that was supposed to be HIV. I also remember the techer saying that the only thing condoms were good for was prevent pregnancy, and even then they failed a lot.
I actually believed the AIDs bit for a year, until I decided it sounded weird. I remember thinking that if that was true, no one would use condoms if everyone women was on the pill, so condoms had to be doing something.
I never did sign the “abstinence contract” they always pushed on everyone. I wasn’t expecting to just run into an alley and lift my skirt like a 19th century prostitute after class, but neither would I limit myself to waiting until marriage. I just thought it was way too simplistic.
But, I can honestly say that I learned more from movies and TV than that sex ed class. That is really sad, too. Schools should be more reliable than the entertainment industry.