Teen Sex: Everybody Else Isn't Doing It

Kids these days, with their sex, their sex, and all their sex. Just look at Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin—it’s getting worse all the time, right? Nope. The portion of high-schoolers who’d had sex in 2007 was 47.8%, reports the New York Times—down from 54.1% in 1991. And the infamous oral sex epidemic? Only 16% of teenagers have had oral sex but not intercourse.

Of those teenagers who have had sex, a 2002 report suggests that they’re waiting until later in high school to do so. Though teen pregnancy is up, it’s due to changes in contraceptive use, not overall sexual activity. Everyone always thinks we’re in a downward moral spiral, says an NYU professor. “It’s very difficult to convince people otherwise.”
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