Introduction
Teenage sex as the word suggests is the tendency of teenagers engaging in sexual behavior. This is normally influenced by cultural behaviors, society norms and peer pressure. Teenage sex have had a rampant increase today with many people blaming the media for the explicit programs on televisions, internet, magazines and other sources which have exposed the teenagers to the curiosity of experimenting of they see and read. This has led to increase in cases of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, abortions and unwanted pregnancy among the teenagers.
Main Discussion
Unlike today, teenage sex was a taboo when we were growing up. Boys and girls above the age of thirteen were taught the dangers of engaging in sexual activities at that tender age. Boys were expected to treat the girls like their sisters while girls were expected to treat boys like their brothers. This mutual respect for each other discouraged any sexual attraction any person may have. In those days every member of the society had an obligation of ensuring that teenagers obeyed the norms of the society. Marriage was highly valued and girls were expected to be virgins when they were married off. Media did not have much influence those days because you did not even wait to be told to go away when an adult program was aired on TV. One could not even dare wait and see what the program was all about. Today teenagers are exposed to all sorts of social evils; adults no longer care how they behave in the presence of teenagers, what they say or do. This in return has eroded our morals exposing the teenagers to the risks of engaging in sex before marriage (David & Hawkins, 2008).
Teenage sex is no longer an issue today and no one is really concerned. Parents have become too busy for their children, having no time to discuss with their teenage children about the changes they are undergoing in their body. Child upbringing is a one family business with your neighbor not caring how your kid behaves or what she/he does.
Teenagers, like adults, have inner drives. They have sexual desires and feelings. This makes them become sexually and emotionally attracted to the members of opposite sex which may lead to physical intimacy. Unfortunately our culture has drown the teenagers to these temptations which have led to rapid increase in teenage sex. Our teenagers are also watching too much media exposing them to sexually provocative materials that fires up their desire to have sex and wears down their morals of not engaging in sexual activities at a tender age (David & Hawkins, 2008).
The nature of upbringing of the children today is also to blame. Lack of supervision in the family set up has left so much freedom to the teenagers. This has left adolescents with so much time by themselves and in such instances, nature is likely to take its course, even when adolescents are committed to not have sex before marriage. On the contrary, too much supervision leads to rebellion once there is an opportunity. This makes adolescents do what their parents are always against without even considering the risks involved. It is therefore important for a parent to exercise proper judgment while still entrusting teenagers with increasing responsibility to manage their life. Peer pressure among other factors is one of the strongest reasons why teenagers engage in sexual behaviors. Most of the teenagers are engaging themselves in sex due to the pressure from their friends and the general perception that everyone is doing it. A person not engaging in sex is sometimes seen as abnormal and may be excommunicated from a certain group. These kinds of behavior have made so many teenagers engage in sexual activities (Robert & Geoffrey, 1985).
With this kind of trend, there is mixed reactions of whether or not sex education should be put in the school system. Some public schools have been implementing sexual education in schools for years. This is a very delicate issue which has its merits and demerits. Some of the parents are against this, while the majority of them are in favor of the same. Recent polls have shown that7% of the population don’t support sex education in schools while 93% are in favor of this subject being part of regular curriculum (Bryan, 1998 ).
One of the advantages of this is that classes are gender exclusive and students are only taught what they need to know based on their gender. In schools students are taught the right terms to use for STDs and reproductive organs rather than the terms in the street. When taught appropriately, it may be used in solving sexual problems in future. Education also dispels the myths surrounding sex in some communities.
The disadvantages may include; some students may be embarrassed or get excited by the topic which may cause the classroom to lack control. Also most of the lessons are mostly taught in brief and thus not enough time is given to discuss serious material and finally if teachers are not well trained in this subject they may transgress their beliefs into the subject rather than stick with the truth.
Conclusion
For such programs to be successful there is a need to take the subject with a lot of seriousness. Students should be graded in these subjects rather than taking them as recreational courses. The presence of sex education in my school would have reduced the number of unwanted pregnancy among female students. Studies have shown that sex education has a positive impact on teenage behavior which I truly agree with (Howard & Martha, 1980).
Reference List
Bryan, K. Robinson, M. (1998) Young women under 16 years with experience of Sexual intercourse: becomes pregnant? Epidemiol. Community Health 56: 115-126.
David Curtis, & J. Hawkins. (2008). Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence. Darby, US. Cengage.
Howard, R, Lewis & Martha E. Lewis (1980). Parental involvement in minors’ abortion decisions, Family Planning Perspectives 14(3)156–162.
Robert Coles, & Geoffrey Stokes (1985). Sex among teenagers.. New York, U S A. Harper & Row.