Sexual Behaviors in Teenagers

Sexual behavior and activity has become more predominate within the community of young people. There are many reasons or explanations to why this is so, but where does the solution come to perspective. The influence of engaging in sexual behavior is widely spread though media and music. This particular prepared paper will educate adolescents on the theoretical and practical ethics of sexual behaviors. Adolescents and teens need to have more education on sexual behavior and consequences that follows it. The question is should sexual behavior in teens be promoted because there are Consequences that follow such as pregnancy and STD's and Influences on sexual behavior in movies, music, and peer pressure . The proposed questions are, is it ok for adolescents to engage in sexual activities utilizing the proper protection? What are the consequences of participating in unprotected sex? Should sexual activity between young people be encouraged? These are a view questions that will be taken into consideration within the discussion of our paper.
The influences on adolescents and teens are very high in profile among our American Society. These influences can come from different amount of things such as: movies, music, peer pressure and alcohol just to name a few. Sexual interest becomes more interesting during teens in there adolescents years and they become to explore many options. When a teen becomes sexually active they tend to want to develop a relationship in multiple forms and have intimate interaction with their partner also looking for companionship and support from their other partner.
Teenagers should be taught in their high school during a health class or health seminar about sexual behavior and the importance of being protected How ever teenagers view T.V. show, movies and listen to explicit music which ignites there sexual appetites. More active adolescents are more accepted by their peers because of what they may think they have in common, which is sex.
Young people who are more mature physically tend use alcohol in the early years of adolescence which increases the sexual drive in their behavior.
Adolescence in this day in age is more prone to a high risk of sexual transmitted dieses and unplanned pregnancies which then leads into abortion. Over the past few years high concerns have been on the rise pertaining to teens being exposed to explicit movies for example X-rated movies.
The question is what is really the appropriate age for a young person to watch pornography. Critics say for 18 and older are mature enough to watch and they will play their actions safe. My opinion is, 21 and up should be law which gives them a little more time for maturity to be established. Teens in high school should be taught the importance being safe or be prepared for the negative outcomes that follow.
Discussing the economic impact of teen and adolescents engaging in sexual behavior is important to the facts as well. The prevalence of sexual intercourse among adolescents is alarming even with a recorded decline over the past two decades in teen sex, pregnancy, births, and abortions. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008, “approximately 440,000 babies were born to teens in 2006; more than 80 percent of these births were to unmarried teens.” That’s 352,000 births out of wedlock a recipe for welfare, drug abuse, child abuse, poverty, sexual transmitted diseases and runaways all conditions contributed to teen and adolescent sexual actives that cost the tax payers money. In 2000 alone tax payers paid an estimated $6.6 billion dollars on new sexual transmitted disease cases of 15-24 year olds. Surprisingly with the high levels of risks from adolescent sexual behavior tax payers are estimated paying $785.8 million on programs to cut down on sexual actives with teens.
A shocking case in Dallas, TX exemplifies the problem in adolescent sexual actives. In 2008 Schoetz, D., 2008, reported on “Teen Sex for Sale: Middle School Madam Busted” is what headlines read. A young middle school female student was arrested for soliciting other teen girls to perform sexual acts for money at a nightclub. That’s not too surprising when Americans find out that a survey estimated 650,000 teenagers both male and female trade sex for money. Dallas authorities are finding out that more teens are willing participants than victims making it hard to crack down on teen prostitution. American teenagers are involved in a sex industry that unwavering characters are more than willing to take advantage of.
According to FamilySafeMedia.com “teen sex was searched on the internet over 13.9 million times an increase of 11% from 2005 and every 39 minutes a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.” The pornography industry is a $13 billion a year business. According MyKidsBrowser.com, “Child pornography has become a $3 billion annual industry.”
With billions spent on sexual transmitted diseases, teen birth, abortions, and pregnancy some politicians like Democrat Barbara Lee of California believe federal funding for abstinence prevention needs to stop. According to Ertelt, S., 2009, “President Barack Obama made it clear he would cut abstinence funding.” Abstinence-only education has been replaced with a sexual education program. Abstinence advocates believe that Obama not sticking with the only guarantee against the risk of teen sexual actives has made a big political mistake to attack the problem of teen sex with contraceptive-only education. The controversy over what programs are best for American teens continues. Who’s right or wrong is long debate not easily answered, but in the meantime billions are being spent and billions are being made from teen and adolescent sexual behavior. Unwanted pregnancies are a result of unprotected sex. Some of the politician would like the world to believe that only the lower class is participating in unprotected sex. But that is not the case as Governor Palin’s seventeen year old unwed daughter became pregnant. Now the view is teens of all classes are affected by our children having sex at early ages and becoming pregnant.
The question is What if anything can be done to stop this growing epidemic? Where do the parents come in on this problem? Is there anything that they can do to stop their children from having unprotected sex? When kids have kids, how can a 12 years mother teach a child right and wrong when they still have not learned themselves. Along with the risk of getting pregnant there are sexually transmitted diseases teens can contract while having unprotected sex. (Kridel, 2009)Cook County, Chicago leads the nation in the number of reported gonorrhea cases and is second in reported cases of Chlamydia. About 60 percent of the cases of gonorrhea were people 24 and younger. The cases of Chlamydia are even higher. Is this generation of children not aware of the diseases that are out there? AIDS is on the rise with persons 16 – 24 years of age. These diseases do not care if you are black, white, or Hispanic. When our kids engage in such reckless sexual behavior and contract theses disease, what are parents to do? Parents can’t watch or be with their kids 24 hours a day, so what can be done? Parents need to be more aggressive about talking to their children about not just having sex, but also about how to have safe sex. Because the time when parents said, “my child is not having sex” is over. Yes daddy’s little girl is having sex. Now daddy has to take her to the clinic, because it burns when she urinates. Daddy needs to talk to his child about safe sex. The worst thing a parent can do is close their eyes and think it will not happen to my child. If parents believe that by not talking to their children about sex, their child will not have sex, and then they are not only condoning this behavior, they are pushing their children to the front of the line. Mr. HIV or Ms. AIDS is waiting to marry their child and live an unhappy life with them. Talking to our children about sex is very important, not only are they having sex, some are being forced to participate in sexual practices they are not ready to do. They think because I’m having sex that I have to do this. Young girls especially feel they have to perform oral sex or have anal sex with a person so that they get the whole of the sexual experience. These practices are not true. But if parents are not talking to their children about sex, how are they supposed to know if parents do not talk to them.
After carefully examining the advantages and consequences of sexual behavior in adolescents and teens the consequences out weigh the benefits. Many times young people engage in different activities in order to fit in or receive attention. How ever sexual behavior is an activity young people with young minds are not ready to handle or participating in. With that being said young people need to be educated fully about sex and the outcomes of engaging in sexual actives. To be completely honest some adults can’t handle sexual relationships. Adults that are qualified especially parents should be the one to educate young people about sex. In reality sex sells and grabs the attention of people of all kind men and women young or old, so it’s probably a slim chance of proper preventive measures taken place to promote abstinence among young people. Even though the government and tax payers are negatively impacted by unwanted and wanted pregnancies.