Sex Education or Abstinence Education?

Smoking and drinking alcohol are two behaviors that are considered legal and “okay” for adults in today’s world. However, we still seek to protect teenagers from the dangers involved with these activities. First, the government established minimal legal age requirements for the usage of both tobacco and alcohol. Beyond that, in recent years, the government and big tobacco companies have agreed to minimize the advertising to teenagers on television and in magazines (see this article), and in regard to the alcohol industries, “Alcohol advertisers have pledged to comply with self-regulatory codes designed to limit targeting of teens” (see this). This government involvement is considered necessary to protect our teens from these addictions that can cause many problems in their lives, now and in their later years. But there is another behavior that adults not only approve for teenagers, but “sell” to them! In a word, sex.

How many shows out there does a teenager watch that do not involve sex at all? None come to my mind. In 2001, two-thirds of all the shows on TV were found to have some sexual content, with the number of programs showing teens in sexual situations rising (see it here). When I sit to watch some TV later, I will see an ad for Enzyte: Natural Male Enhancement, Cialis or Viagra, birth control commercials, and commercials for everything else, which will contain scantily-clad females or a man “winning” a woman over with his car, newly-grown hair, or hamburger. Magazines covers offer us articles about how to be better lovers, the best sexual positions, or what men want. Sex is hammered into our daily lives to the point where we begin not to notice anymore. But for a young person, seeing all this everyday tells him or her that sex is “cool”, “normal”, and “desirable”. These are all true—but that does not mean sex is a good idea for a teenager.