First off- STD rates for women of any age are always, always higher than STD rates for men. Biologically, the risk of a woman contracting a disease (regardless of use of protection- IE, under whatever initial condition) is always higher than that of the mans. So an extremely active boy and a moderately active girl may share the same probabilities of infection. So the whole thing about making this about the girls is simply so that the media can report a salacious story about the old standby villain- the promiscuous woman!

Why the hell isn't everyone involved in this conversation making noise about the male partners of the women who are equally responsible? It takes two to tango, in case you missed figuring that out! No- we only judge women who lays with men, never the men who lay with them! Good grief, give me a break!

What next, shall we beat the girls for showing an ankle?

Second off, by some accounting something like 1 out of 4 Adult females between 18 and 30something have Herpes of one strain or another (1 out of 5 men), and the rates for Genital wart forming HPV is just as bad. Most sexually active adults between the ages of 18 and their mid thirties will have some STD these days, regardless if they know about it or not! So that only 1 in 4 teenage women have or have had or will have an STD should not be surprising.

Thirdly, we are still back to the essentially victorian notions of attributing moral weight to STDs. You can get some of the nasties out there during one single protected sexual encounter. One protected sexual encounter does not a 'nasty whore' make! You can even get the modern nasty strains of gonorrhea by kissing someone! Same thing with herpes! Is a woman a 'dirty whore' if she kissed a man who had been infected?

We should be sympathizing with kids these days, not making them wear scarlet letters and shunning them on the street. Adolescents have been screwing since god invented adolescence. Its just that nowdays, they have to bob-and-weave not just through the moral crap of old farts like us, and the biological minefield of the STDs out there.

Good god, people, Kids screwing before they are old enough to handle sex is nothing new! Read a book for chrissake, about what it was like in the 20's, 30's,40's,50s... etc. The flowerchild generation did not invent irresponsible sex out of wedlock, they just acknowledged the 500 pound gorilla was there and decided to take it on with some damn maturity.

And another thing- even adults can't healthfully and rationally handle their sexuality without it creating a crisis in their lives. Infidelity, politicians and prostitutes... all of these things are 'old hat'. Why do we expect kids to have it any more figured out than we do? And why do we judge kids trying to 'learn-by-doing' with their sexuality harsher than we judge adult idiots who through their lives away chasing tails they should not chase?

You think these kids need to be more mature? I think you people are the ones needing to grow the hell up.

I often think adults can't accept their childs nascent sexuality because it is the ultimate sign of imminent adulthood. Its when your kids have a driving all-consuming interest outside the family that you can't, by its very nature, be a part of. In essence, its the damn adults that need to grow up and learn how to let go.

Give the kids the information, support and love they need to figure this crap out, not a bunch of moral crap out of the bronze age. Thats what my family did for me, and I ended up having sex when I was ready for it, never catching a damn thing, never cheating on a partner- etc. It wasn't because someone downloaded old-timey values into my head, it was because I was treated with some respect by my family and given the straight dope on what this 'sex' thing was.

Yeti