Experts: Teenage Girls Falling into Cultural Dangers of Sex
A new report on teens and sex revealed an overall decline in high school students ever having engaged in sexual intercourse yet studies have also shown more teenagers retracting their virginity pledges. Amid the studies, more parents are raising concerns on cultural trends that may be degrading the values of the average teen.
Reported in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health, a study conducted on more than 14,000 students found that 52 percent of those who took virginity pledges retracted those pledges within a year. And adolescents who abandoned a born-again Christian identity were more than twice as likely as their peers to say they had never taken a virginity pledge, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Thursday stating 47 percent of high school students last year said they had ever had sexual intercourse, down from the 54 percent reported in 1991.
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Despite the noted drop, teens face an age where everything from the Internet to books has become more pornographic.
Popular Christian author Melody Carlson who writes for teens spoke of a disturbing new trend found among teenaged girls on Focus on the Family's radio segment Friday.
There is a popular line of books on the market dubbed "chicklet literature.” Girls from elementary school to high school are largely attracted to chicklet literature and while parents may rejoice over their kids actually picking up a book and reading, some have discovered content that is sometimes worse than what adults are reading.
"The values that they're teaching are completely superficial," said Carlson. "They condone alcohol use, drug use, sex, [and] body image problems."
"They are basically pornographic," said best-selling writer Bill Myers on the radio show.
One popular series directed toward the 20-something crowd but increasingly picked up by teens is Gossip Girl. The series involves a group of urban teenagers living in the Upper East Side of New York City with a lot of money to burn. They're born to every advantage (wealth, status and looks) and deal with the everyday issues of today's average teen - friends, parents, drugs, sex, college, eating disorders, etc.
Carlson expressed concern that the behavior and activities of the characters are "completely acceptable [with] no consequence."
"I can imagine ... we're just feeding into the cultural lies that these girls are hearing on every other level as well," she said.
Another book series Carlson warned of is The Pretty Committee, which she described as one of the worst in the genre in terms of shallow values as it focuses on body image.
With sex on the market in nearly every corner, Myers told parents the importance of teaching kids discernment.
"We need to start young and we need to help our kids understand that this world out there presents them with a lot of temptations and a lot of dangers that they may be completely unaware of."
