Kraven Moorehead

The epidemic of meaningless teen sex
By Mark O'Connell | March 9, 2005

''MISTAKE" AND ''consent": These words have appeared with alarming frequency during discussions of recent events at Milton Academy. Their very presence reflects a likely misperception of the immediate events and a dangerous misunderstanding of an epidemic problem among our children.

As a psychologist who works with adolescents I hear quite a bit about how oral sex is common, not only among college kids ''hooking up," but among middle teens. It even occurs among 12-year-olds and younger. And I also hear what young people say about these experiences: ''It's just a thing to do. It doesn't mean anything."

We should not be surprised by either the age or the attitudes of these kids.

We've built a world that bombards our children with sex. Advertisements, television, magazines, movies, the Internet, and the increasingly mainstream multibillion-dollar porn industry saturate them with the message that great and frequent sex is key to status and satisfaction and that all things sexual are possible -- indeed, expectable. The images convey a sexuality that is more virtual than real, more impersonal than personal, more available on demand than negotiated by consent. They emphasize superficial pleasure over the deeper and more enduring meanings of intimacy, tenderness, connection, and even procreation.