Every generation acts like rutting elk when they are teenagers. EVERY generation. And, like clockwork, that generation grows up into adulthood, and begins fretting that "teenagers these days are just having too much sex!" I would wager that there has not been a single generation that was not obsessed with the amount of sex that (they feared) their children were having.
It has nothing to do with self-restraint. My parents taught me that sex is natural and good, and that it is best enjoyed with someone with whom you are in a serious relationship. Anything else can lead to more problems than it's worth. And that's advice I followed, and that I will pass on to my kids.
I've known far too many people whose parents pushed a "absolutely no sex!" line on them, and, guess what? Those people were always having way more sex than my friends whose parents were more realistic about the same thing.
My parents also taught me that sex was a natural and beautiful thing but not something reserved for "serious relationships only" unless their was an engagement ring on my finger and a promise of marriage:-)
Puppy love didn't count.
"Everyone does it."
and the companion
"All the people whose parents told them to abstain are worse than I am."
Don't you guys ever get any new material? Most of us have actually been teenagers, and we know for a fact that everyone didn't do it, and still doesn't. And we know for a fact that plenty of the kids who abstained waited longer, some until their wedding night, and made smarter choices about sex and marriage than those who didn't.