http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/07/11/1215658134130.html?page=fullpage

Ignorance of sex is widespread among students. And while schools may be condemned if they teach responsible behaviour, they are also criticised if they don't offer sex lessons. By Denise Ryan.

THESE are the facts of life that will make many parents cringe. Most young people in years 10 and 12 at Australian high schools have experienced some form of sexual activity. Twenty six per cent of year 10 students have had sexual intercourse, rising to just under 50% of year 12 students.

A third of sexually active year 12 students have had sex without a condom and 57% have had oral sex (56% of males and 58% of females).

You might think these statistics couldn't possibly apply to your teenager. But research by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University indicates that many teenagers are not as innocent as their parents think.

A national survey of the sexual health of 2388 year 10 and year 12 Australian secondary students, which included Catholic and independent school students, found that the number of sexually active young people had increased from surveys in 1992 and 1997 to the 2002 levels outlined above.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/01/1086058854941.html

Sex education in US schools has taken on new meaning.

eachers at institutions that accept government money must advocate abstinence until marriage as the only certain way to prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Teachers must also avoid any mention of contraception, except to point out the failure rates of various methods.
But experts who have spent decades studying teenage sexual activity have gathered ample evidence to refute the basic premise of abstinence-only sex education. They say it is not adequate to protect youngsters from unwanted pregnancies and disease.

"There is nothing in any peer-reviewed scientific journal to suggest that teaching abstinence-only is effective in getting teens to delay sexual activity," said Cynthia Dailard, a lawyer at the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit organisation devoted to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

In contrast, she said, evidence shows that sex education promoting abstinence, but also giving contraception information for those who do not remain abstinent, does delay the start of sexual activity and reduces teenage pregnancies and disease.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/13/1084289819834.html

Protecting young people from sexual knowledge is simply a formula for disaster, writes George Monbiot.

A US evangelical group has announced that next month it will be recruiting British teenagers to its campaign against sex before marriage. In the United States, more than a million have taken the pledge. "Britain," the organiser says, "is fascinated with the idea of sexual abstinence." In my day such a fellow would have been horsewhipped. Yet young people are flocking to him.
The abstinence campaign that hopes to corrupt the morals of our once proud nation - a group called the Silver Ring Thing - has so far received $US700,000 ($1 million) from George Bush as part of his campaign to replace sex education with Victorian values. This year he doubled the federal budget for virginity training to $US270 million. In terms of participation, his program is working. In every other respect it's a catastrophe.

No one could dispute that thousands of teenagers in Britain and the US are suffering as a result of sex before marriage. Teenage pregnancies are concentrated at the bottom of the social scale: teenage daughters of unskilled labourers are 10 times as likely to become pregnant as middle-class girls. UNICEF says women born into poverty are twice as likely to stay poor if they have their children too soon.