Issue 18

I don't think that abstinence only education should be the only message teens get. My parents raised me to believe I should wait until marraige before having sex, however growing up that wasn't the only message I was getting. My parents taught me that abstinence was the right thing to do for many reasons, but they also informed me that if I choose not to wait I could face many consequences, which definitely scared me. I think that teens should be taught abstinence both in and out of school because engaging in sex is a risky behavior and the consequences are numorous however they are going to make up their own minds about sex and I think that they should be taught that if they don't maintain abstinence they may face consequences that they may not be ready for. There is a study supporting that abstinence only education actually increases teens likelihood of getting an std or pregnant which I totally can understand. I mean when a teen is told not to do something, they often do, and that's mostly because were curious, we hear people talking about it and wonder what the big deal is. So I beleive that if the information is out there, then the teens will have the choice which most likely will decrease that curiousity. Furhermore in reality teens are subject to a lot of messages thanks to the media and most of those messages are about sex. So I think it's just foolish not to educate teens about the messages they are constantly exposed to otherwise they are going to interpret them the way they want to which can be extremely damaging. So in my opinion give teens a choice, give them the facts and help them understand that their actions may have consequences, but I think the more they know about the matter the better decisions they can make for themselves. Q1: How can abstinence campaigns compete with pop culture to ensure the message is getting across? Q2: Why are teens engaging in risky behavior? Lack of facts, no active parental role?