Sed ed is DEFINITELY something that needs to be taught more thoroughly.

Also, many cultures in the world allow adolescents to be curious about sexuality, and talk about it openly. This whole "No sex before marriage" thing is a very Western/New World idea that is not embraced by the rest of the world. It was originally adopted to protect land rights in feudal Europe: If a man knew that his wife had never been with anyone else, then he knew that his land would be inherited by HIS child, not anyone else's.

Personally, I think it's time to drop the insistence that "abstinence until marriage" is the only acceptable answer and give our teens the information they need ot keep themselves safe.

I think that the reason kids in industrialized areas are becoming interested in sex earlier is that we are mocing away from "dependence training", where a child learns to see themselves as part of a unit, and into "independence training", where a lot of emphasis is placed on the individual.

In a dependence training environment, kids grow up with the focus being on their family, taking care of their elders and younger siblings, and having tasks to do to contribute to their living environment.

In an independence training environment, the child is not given any such things to focus on; they are expected to learn to be independent quickly, but not really given any tasks to contribute to their family or environment until their late teens (generally). So they find other areas of interest. It makes semse to me that a lot of them find sex, it IS a pretty interesting thing.

Also, the age at which sexual relations are "inappropriate' is culturally defined, keep that in mind before passing judgement on today's youth.