Whew, check out these stats for teens :P

[phyco126]

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/4885861/detail.html

You know, I always knew that teens had a problem with this, but... my goodness, I think that's more pregnant teens for that one school than the entire town of Fountain! I would say Colorado Springs too, but we all know that ain't true

[Kizyr]

The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.

Oh yes, because God forbid that all the blame should be directed towards parents and the kids themselves. Though I'm wondering how a video game got them pregnant. KF

[phyco126]

You know, it all started with those darned vibrating controllers for the PSX. I knew it was going to be trouble, I just knew it!

I tend to blame parents and teens than anything. I'm sure the listed things don't help, but I really really don't see them being the key to all of this. I say, 5% of it relates to the kids.

[Jenner]

Many teens have sex before they're ready because sex is taught as something only grown-ups do. Teens have a great desire to be adults, a hunger for maturity. Better education might help but the true blame lies in the teens without common sense; sex doesn't make you an adult. Maturity is more then spreading your legs or sticking it in.

[phyco126]

Ah, too true. However, I tend to believe other factors are involved. It's not just for maturity, but for the "cool" factor, the same reason teens do drugs. It's a pleasure for drugs because of the high, and it's a pleasure to have sex. It's "cool" and if you don't give it up then you end up being something of their imagination (so many names they use, so little time.)

Though, I also blame males for this. So many guys feel that they need to stick it in something (I'm a guy, I know ) that they usually end up forcing themselves onto the girls, and the girls wanting to be cool and accepted give it up.

[punkabof1]

Why the hell would they blame "movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline” I am a teen and a bunch of ppl I know in my school get pregnant... they don’t teach abstinence they teach how to put on a condom. Blame the Friggn School!! And then they go and kill the innocent kid
WTF

I get laughed at school bc I tell them I am gona stay a virgin until I get married. It gets so annoying!!

[Sonic#]

First of all, abstinence is cool. Staying a virgin until you're married, I support that choice.

However, I must say that, no matter how much you teach abstinence, people are going to want to experiment anyway. The school can't be a social controller. Its job is not to impose a particular lifestyle, but to educate, to give the students the power to reasonably choose what they want to be, if they are willign to take that choice. If people are going to experiment anyway, I'd rather they know of the safe ways of practicing sex, so that pregnancy and STDs don't get spread around as much.

Abstinence, yes, it's a sure way to prevent a variety of complications and problems. It should be taught. But it shouldn't be the only thing taught. Dispell the misconceptions and myths that are dangerous. And hope they listen.

[Alunissage]

I would add that kids have to be shown the brutal reality of what may happen from their screwing around, the way driver's ed students are sometimes shown wrecks. However, I have to say that I don't really see all the education in the world doing all that much good, because it practically seems to be part of being that age to think that "it can't happen to me". Seriously, I think this is a developmental stage, the way that learning cause and effect is (around four years old) -- people may think that teens are done developing because they're mostly grown up, but that's just appearances. There has to be more than just education, because there will always be people who think that because it won't happen to them they don't need to take precautions.

[phyco126]

Uh, teaching about condoms is good. If they end up pregnant, it's not the schools fault. Either, A) The condom broke B) They used a less successful birth control method (I.E. Pullout, spermicide, foam, etc...) or C) They just didn't use anything. I would never blame the school. Right now there is a hefty battle raging with schools that teach how to practice safe sex and those that only teach abstinence.

Personally, any school that teaches just one isn't cutting it, they need to teach both. People who think that the school should only teach abstinence are arrogant, and (I'm probably going to piss everyone off with this next comment,) are usually religionist extremist. God forbid that if a school teaches students how to use a condom then they all are going to go to hell. Hell, apparently even kissing your GF or BF is a sin. Guess that means that everyone's gonna BURN BURN BURN!

Grrr. Anyway, back to the topic. I think that blaming the school is wrong, they are doing the best they can. The real blame should fall on teens and their parents. I would rather my children abstain from sex until they are more mature, but if they are going to experiment I would rather them take the precaution to avoid STDs and pregnancy.

Oh, and on a last note, people who think that teaching abstinence will stop all kids from screwing each other needs to get their head examined. *CoughBushcough*

[Alunissage]

Nothing will stop everyone. But that teaching shouldn't all be at once right when everyone is maximally hormonal. Parents need to teach their kids from childhood what is and isn't appropriate, and be specific on the definitions at the onset of puberty, if not before. The schools can provide clinical information, but the morality of it lies with the parents. Of course, there's the entertainment industry teaching the exact opposite...and no, I'm not blaming it for everything, but to assume that it plays no role is just as absurd.

[phyco126]

Well, I realize it plays a role, I just doubt that it plays as big a role that people scream that it does. I mean, we do have games, movies, and music that glorifies getting banged by 50 guy/girls by age 10, but I still highely doubt it affects people to an extreme effect. If it did, then I guess I would have already gone on a killing spree, no?

Parents play a big role, and without parents teaching their kid's morals, adding to the fact that they let TV and Video Games babysit them, then of course that can only spell disaster.

[drumlord]

Kids were having plenty of sex (and violence and everything else, etc.) before the entertainment industry. They just didn't very good access to each other before cars and public transportation and whatnot came around

My schools taught abstinance as what they want us to do, then doing anything but sex, then sex with protection. We also had particularly progressive health teacher that showed how to put a condom on a dildo. Always gets a few laughs, but I'm sure it also helps prevent condoms being torn from being put on wrong.

[Ozone]

Teen pregnancy is becoming a huge problem and is contributing to the welfare nation that is growing in America. I do however believe that teaching abstinence doesn't do anything but harm them further. Whether you like to believe or not, teens are going to screw whether or not you teach them to put a condom on or not, it's better to teach them them safe sex than nothing at all.

[Kizyr]

I was part of a group in high school that taught HIV/AIDS awareness; part of it dealt with safe sex practices. Our school officially required that we only teach abstinence, but everyone in the group knew this was unrealistic. We preferred to assume that the kids we were teaching weren't complete morons, and so we discouraged sex and strongly encouraged abstinence, but we still made sure that they felt comfortable asking questions about condom usage.

The loophole we used was that we had to answer any questions that were asked. So, we hinted at asking any condom-related questions, and went from there. There're actually a lot of things about condom use that kids don't know, and if they're in the mood and going to use one anyway, they may as well use it right...

And this is coming from someone with a religious obligation to celibacy. KF

[Alunissage]

Kids were having plenty of sex (and violence and everything else, etc.) before the entertainment industry. They just didn't very good access to each other before cars and public transportation and whatnot came around

Are you being deliberately obtuse? I wasn't saying that that's the cause of teenage sex, I was talking about how messages from society are at cross purposes with the messages kids should be getting from their parents...starting as kids, not just all of a sudden dumping some parental decree when the kid is 13. Which is why the schools teaching abstinence is stupid, because that's what the parents should have been doing all along. The moral judgment of whether or not it's all right to have sex is not the schools' domain; their message should be that it's the only way to stay 100% out of trouble (while comparing it to other ways).

[drumlord]

Kids were having plenty of sex (and violence and everything else, etc.) before the entertainment industry. They just didn't very good access to each other before cars and public transportation and whatnot came around

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

Do you deliberately not detect sarcasm?
Do you deliberately ignore smilies which denote a lack of serious intention?
Do you like being cruel? Because I'll be damned if I've ever seen anybody lash out at more posters than you.

Here's a few smilies just for good measure

[phyco126]

*chuckles*

Well, I'm staying out of it, even if I did find that funny

Teens will have sex no matter what. Even if you buy a titanium re-inforced steel chasity belt with no key to open the son-of-a, they'll find a way to open that sucker for the prize inside.

Besides, there are only a handful of people I know that don't care. And they don't care because they're asexuals. Oh, and on of those asexuals is a religious fanatic. Scary really, and I feel baddly for her. *sigh*

[Alunissage]

Do you deliberately not detect sarcasm?
Do you deliberately ignore smilies which denote a lack of serious intention?

No. But with that reply it did seem that you thought I was indeed saying that the entertainment industry is to blame and directing that sarcasm at me, which was unnecessary, and brushing off the actual content of my post.

Do you like being cruel? Because I'll be damned if I've ever seen anybody lash out at more posters than you.

I like people to think before they post, which doesn't always happen. I've backed out of submitting a lot of posts because I read them over and decided they weren't necessary or shouldn't be posted, and wish more people would do the same. Cruelty would be in enjoying making people hurt, which I do not. And I don't think there have been many instances of my saying something harsh that were not backed up by other posters. Sometimes someone has to be the bad guy to get things out in the open. An impulse which you seem to be indulging in yourself with that remark.

[drumlord]

No. But with that reply it did seem that you thought I was indeed saying that the entertainment industry is to blame and directing that sarcasm at me, which was unnecessary, and brushing off the actual content of my post.

First, when making a quip, there's no need for me to treat the subject matter with any amount of seriousness. When Leno or Letterman makes a joke about current events, do you call in to tell them they took it oh so totally out of context and didn't hit on what actually happened? Note that that's only an example, not meant to be a comparison of me and late night hosts. But also...

Of course, there's the entertainment industry teaching the exact opposite...and no, I'm not blaming it for everything, but to assume that it plays no role is just as absurd.

Were I actually giving a serious response, it's clear you did blame the entertainment industry for teens having sex. "I'm not blaming it for everything" means you ARE blaming it for something. Don't pretend you didn't say it just to make a point.

I like people to think before they post, which doesn't always happen. I've backed out of submitting a lot of posts because I read them over and decided they weren't necessary or shouldn't be posted, and wish more people would do the same. Cruelty would be in enjoying making people hurt, which I do not. And I don't think there have been many instances of my saying something harsh that were not backed up by other posters. Sometimes someone has to be the bad guy to get things out in the open. An impulse which you seem to be indulging in yourself with that remark.

I could care less about what you like people to do. As for your implication that I simply posted what I felt, think again. I've watched idly as you've poisoned this forum with your incessant rantings time and again driving away or pissing off a lot of posters typically guilty of nothing more than being young and naive.

What's that? Something thinks something in Lunar is different than you? Hang the bastards! Somebody wants to know about the Dark Scimitar? How dare they be so nosy! Somebody says practically anything that in some small way might piss you off? We may as well ban them on sight!

I didn't say anything because I have respect for Mickey and how he wants to run his forums. But my patience only goes so far. At one point I valued this community and for their sake, I hope you'll find out whatever makes you so damn uptight and fix it. But for me, I'm gone.

[Kizyr]

I'd rather both of you just drop it. This entire argument started from a misinterpretation of what someone said or meant. There's no reason to carry it out further.

I like both of you on the board, so I'd prefer that nobody leaves or harbours any ill-will towards one another. It's not like I can mandate that, but I'm indicating my preference for mutual understanding and, barring that, just moving on. KF