Shocking

I just don't know what to say.

Is the most shocking part that they don't give the percentage of pre-teens having sex?

I found:

"More than one-third of youth in the study reported engaging in precoital touching behaviors. Among the students who engaged in precoital behavior, 43 percent reported having engaged in sexual intercourse."

.334 x .43 = 0.143362; 14%

Ok, so 1 in 7 pre-teen is having sex. That is shocking, at least to me. How does anyone think 12 year olds having sex is possibly good in any way?

Of course, the researchers get to be shocking too:

"These findings are alarming because youth who start having sex before age 14 are much more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, use alcohol or drugs before sex and have unprotected sex, all of which puts them at greater risk for getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or becoming pregnant"

Err, so the only negative thing about this is that they might get a horrible, incurable disease; or become pregnant? What about, you know, children having sex in the first place?

"'We need to develop prevention programs that address the needs of students who are not yet sexually active in order to promote skills and attitudes to help them wait until they are older to have sex,' Markham said. 'And we need to provide skills and knowledge related to condoms and contraception for youth who are already sexually active.'"

"The study recommends that sexually active students also need to receive accurate and factual information and services related to STDs and pregnancy testing, as well as skills for future abstention and risk reduction for those who intend to remain sexually active."

How can a 12 year old "intend" anything? Don't adults have a responsibility to guide and limit those intentions?

At least abstention is in there somewhere!