I had ''urges'' starting from when I was about 13. They felt pretty natural to me. I chose not to act on them until a wee bit later (not much later mind you, LOL). I didn't act on them out of peer pressure. I did it because I *wanted* to. It felt good and it felt right to me. I didn't and don't think I was doing anything wrong from a ''natural'' standpoint - only knew that adults frowned upon it. Obviously in hindsight there are issues with that, like birth control and education, not only about the process of sex but perhaps more importantly, about the emotional side of it and of course, not doing it for peer pressure reasons, etc.. Abstinence programs aren't going to override biological function (for those who feel the urges strongly enough to act on them). It's better to educate, inform, and make contraceptives available both for std reasons and as birth control. It's excellent to teach teenagers the value of waiting to have sex as well, and to hopefully choose the ''right'' partner and protect themselves physically and emotionally, etc etc... basically, I just think all these points ought to be covered for teen sex education, not just telling them they shouldn't do it.

I think they should be avaliable if at least gives the option of having then if a 12 year old does decide to have sex. I am sure some are at least sensible enough to go and get protection. As for teenagers having sex whoever didnt know that went on must be very niave. I mean look at the teen pregnancy rates. And I blame that on lack of education on the subject and lack of services. For example a nurse wanted to set up a clinic in our school to hand out pills, condoms and do pregnancy tests. But the headteacher would not allow it.

And I don't blame it on the pregnancys and sexual activties on the parents. At the age of 12 I had to be in by 7. At the age of 14 It was 8 at the age of 15 it was 9.30. My parents brought me up really well. They were very strict actually. But I became pregnant at 16. It was not my parents fault it was my own for being sexually active. The way I see it if a teenager is going to do it they are going to do it. You can't watch them 24/7
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theres also the fear of beeing told off frowned upon by adults beeing a reason teens dont buy condoms or other contraceptives. hell im married with a kid and would be embarassed to go buy some!

Agreed. But I do think it's wonderful to have parental controls in place for a lot of reasons other than sexual stuff...just for the sake of setting boundaries and ''bringing up their children as well as they can etc''

But on the subject of sexual activity itself, while curfews might help reduce their opportunities to have sex, the reality is teenagers are VERY clever at figuring out ways to do it. There were teens in my school who frequented certain places in the school either on lunch breaks or by just ditching a class and going to these ''secret places'' to have sex. Parents think their kids are at school and couldn't possibly be up to something, meanwhile they are shagging in the janitor's room, haha

true true. they will find a way if they want to, weather its at school, sneaking out, a quicky behind a tree!

I used to go out my bedroom window onto the roof of the bathroom and over the fence
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No, what I mean is there needs to be a whole new system. Telling kids they're not allowed to have sex until they're 16 then providing condoms for them to do it safely is IMO sending out mixed messages. What that new system should be is something I couldn't possibly attempt to comment on, not having the experience to do so.

Errgh, this thread makes me feel i dont want to think of 12 year old boys having sex, let alone condoms to fit their little willies, yuck

Its a good idea in principle i guess, whether it works or not is another thing, still makes me feel though

12 seems a bit young to me, too, but that's just my opinion. It's a whole different debate what constitutes an ''ok age'' to engage in sexual activity. But I will say, the idea of teens, particularly young to mid teens, engaging in sex, makes me feel the same way now. However, I didn't think that when I was one of them doing it! LOL...on the contrary, the thought of adults having sex made me feel yucky..haha

I dont see a problem with it!! personally i hate this countries view on "sex". for some reason it seems to be this massive taboo, and maybe if we didnt make such a fuss of 'you must wait until you are 16 and not a minute before' then maybe it wouldnt all be so appealing to teenagers!!

I was I the same class as the original 'youngest dad in britain' (Sean Stewart was 12 when he got his 16 year old girlfriend pregnant) and i remember when it all came out. he was having an argument with one of my friends and he called my friend a virgin as an insult (what was all that about anyway ) and she retaliated by saying he was too, then his friend piped up with 'he's not actually coz his girlfriend is pregnant', like it was some kind of amazing achievement coz it was the ultimate rebellion...
that friend soon started dating my friend and he seemed obsessed with catching up with him and eventually dumped my friend coz she wouldnt sleep with him. its all a competition in school, so if they are gonna do it, the least we could do is give them the chance to do it safely. What choices do they have at the moment?? girls arent gonna go to their docs at 12 and ask to go on the pill coz A, she would be worried about her parents finding out, and B, the doc would probably say no anyway!! and boys aren't gonna go off and buy condom coz very few of them see it as 'their problem' (they think the girl should be in charge of birth control)!!

Other countries begin their sex education as young as year 4 (age 9, i think) and they have the lowest teen pregnancy rate. ok, so more of the kids might be doing it, but they are doing it safely, which surely is the most important thing!? When Sean got his GF pregnant we hadnt even begun sex-ed at our school...if we had, perhaps he would have thought twice before doing what he did. who knows!!

(ps - the 16year old girlfriend didnt know Sean was only 12 as he had told her he was 16, and in her defence, he did look older than he was. but they clearly werent "close" when they decided to take their relationship to the next level!! he was later excluded from our school for trying to deal cocaine at the bottom of the play-ground and smoking in the bushes during lunch-breaks)