Posted on 04/04/2005 8:20:42 AM PDT by stm
CHICAGO (Reuters) - One in five U.S. teenagers say they have engaged in oral sex, an activity that some adolescents view as not sex at all and certainly less risky than intercourse, a report released Monday said.
The survey of 580 children with a mean age of 14-1/2 found 20 percent said they had engaged in oral sex, compared to 14 percent who said they had engaged in sexual intercourse.
In addition, one-third of the multi-ethnic 9th graders surveyed said they intended to have oral sex within the next six months and nearly one-fourth planned to have intercourse during the period. It was more common for boys to have performed oral sex on girls than vice versa, the report said.
Previous studies and numerous campaigns aimed at deterring teenaged sex have focused on intercourse, but as many as half of adolescents experience oral sex first, the report said.
The risk of transmitting infections, including HIV, is significantly less with oral sex than with intercourse but is likely underestimated by teenagers, said the report in the journal Pediatrics.
Youngsters who engage in oral sex rarely used condoms or dental dams, even though herpes, hepatitis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis as well as the virus that causes AIDS can all be transmitted orally, it added.
"Given the suggestion that adolescents do not view oral sex as sex and see oral sex as a way of preserving their virginity while still gaining intimacy and sexual pleasure, they are likely to interpret sexual health messages as referring to vaginal sex," wrote lead author Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco.
"Adolescents also believed that oral sex is more acceptable than vaginal sex for adolescents their own age in both dating and non-dating situations, oral sex is less of a threat to their values and beliefs, and more of their peers will have oral sex than vaginal sex in the near future," she wrote.
Yes! You sure did!
I don't think so. Most adults I talk to about this sort of thing claim that the oral stuff in their marriage went away (thus a tie) and in a few others they tell me that the guy really really likes it (so he gets it) and the girl doesn't care as much for it (so she gets other stuff instead).
And it's not really smoking if you don't inhale. :)
Ping to self for later pingout.
Depends on what 'is' is. (Sorry; couldn't help myself.)
If oral sex is not sex, why is it called oral sex?
Ewe would know?
I read an article two years ago in the Des Moines Register about junior high girls giving "rainbows" to boys at parties. Wearing different color lipstick, they add colored stripes to the male members. Presumably, this practice also includes an element of Russian Roulette as the girls do not know who gets to swallow the load(s)
Yeah, they'll think it's safe until they get an STD.
Have you read "Rise and Fall of the American Teenager"?
It illustrates how we as a collective society have allowed this perpetuating adolesence in teenagers, and that it's a relatively new thing in American culture.
Basically how we're spoiling them rotten by NOT giving them a heavier sense of responsibility. Comparing how in other cultures, teens become adults and carry more responsibility much earlier in life than we do. Most of that is due to simple necessity...but here in the USA even our poorest live in relative luxury in comparison. Our culture of ease and on-demand convenience breeds a lot of spoiled kids.
Spoiled, demanding kids become spoiled, demanding teens, become spoiled, demanding adults who end up being the middle-management jerks that a lot of us end up working for.
I'm of the opinion that teens need LESS freedom, and not more.
don't laugh about this. The Dems are trying to repackage liberalism as progressiveism to lose the stench.
coming soon: Euthanasia is fun for the handicapped.
"Where I live, as I said, about the only time I hear about him, is here on FR."
You are soooo lucky, Stuart! (Sorry for the late reply...it's too nice out today to be indoors. Those days are few and far between 'Up Nort.') :)
Hopefully, someday, the mindless Clinton apologists will someone realize that
'when you TOLERATE irresponsible, unethical and immoral activity AT THE TOP',,,
YOU TOLERATE IT EVERYWHERE!!
And don't forget, a sacrificial lamb is a mutton for punishment. I kid you not.
I know, I used to live in Eau Claire.
Just thinking about those sweet young things taking those uncircumcised penises into their mouths is sickening. Guess there is the reward of that cheese providing some nourishment, let alone the resulting trench mouth.
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