Teen Sex

"It won’t happen to me." This is generally the viewpoint of most teens. Somehow, they believe their immune. Living in there own bubble, able to have all the pleasures while the consequences bounce off. If you sit back and think about it, you’ll know that’s not true at all. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States a teen becomes pregnant every thirty seconds, and every thirteen seconds a teen contracts a sexually transmitted disease (STD). In fact, a quarter of the people who acquire sexually transmitted HIV are teens and every hour two people under twenty-six are infected with the HIV virus.

As adolescents age and mature, they develop a sex drive. Over a period of time in which society grew and changed, sexual activity has increased among adolescents; recent studies show that almost fifty percent of adolescents under the age of fifteen and seventy-five percent under the age of nineteen report having had sexual intercourse. Even though they are having sex, the main problem is that it is unprotected. Some adolescents are not interested in or knowledgeable about birth-control methods or the symptoms of sexually transmitted disease. Because of this the rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases has and still is increasing.

What goes down at proms? Personally, I feel that at prom time teens go out having something to prove. They want to be wild and uncontrollable, have a fun time no restrictions. For some girls their prom is the perfect time to lose their virginity. They feel it's romantic, and they’re 'supposedly’ with their loved ones." “I want my first time to be special; I don’t want to be cheated out of it." Furthermore, they give no thought to having protection. "Their loved one will tell them if they have STD’s. They just can’t get pregnant." Teens claim that they do not go out to their prom with the intention of "getting it on," but we all know that they expect something to "go down."

This brings us to my second point: the parents. In most situations parents are clueless. Society has gotten so that it is no longer acceptable for a teen to communicate with their parents. Now it’s all about the friends. Is there something wrong with this picture? A mom will still believe her daughter is just as innocent as she was when she was a little child. "Ooo my sweet little girl is growing up." But they won’t ever know how grown up their "GIRL" really is until they notice the bulge on her stomach. Some parents even go so far as to say 'as long as you’re being safe baby.’ Yes, being safe is one thing, but how about not doing it at all? I believe teens will talk to their parents if the parents TRY to understand and are not so judgmental. None of that "why in my day" crap.

What happens if you show adolescents the pain, the hurt, THE TRUTH? Will they listen? What happens when they learn they are NOT immune? A portion of a video I watched was dedicated to showing us the reaction to a bunch of teens that were taken to a clinic and taught a lesson. No matter their gender or sexuality, this lesson affected all of them and, should, us. They talked to a lady who had the same dreams as them, the same goals, who once lived their life. She was engaged to her fiancée before they decided to have sex. Because of this indiscretion, she developed AIDS and she has suffered horribly, and because she never thought to ask, to check and most of all to be safe. For her the effects of the disease are clear. By looking at her you KNOW she’s got something, but for others they are a blank card and you will never know until you flip over the card. And how you flip that card will make all the difference to your world, future and life. It made them THINK. Think about what they are doing, what their friends are doing. And most of all it instilled a healthy dose of fear in them. Even though we the viewers were watching this through a screen, I believe it affected us in the same way.

In conclusion, teen sex is wrong! Somehow, society has made it acceptable. Adolescents have always believed that nothing will happen to them. You see their different from all the rest. By hook or by crook, reality reaches some of them, the BAD way. It gives them STD’s a baby they are not prepared for and a whole lot of trouble. And all because it cannot happen to them. They don’t need to be abstinent or even have SAFE sex. The parents are clueless or worst of all ACCEPTING. I think after all this the only questions that can come next are; is it worth it? And when the consequences of five seconds of pleasure bite you in the back, can you handle it?













Aziza Mohamed
          Reality bites.