Posts Tagged ‘
sex ’
Monday, January 7th, 2013
A growing genre of books being called “new adult” has bookstores wondering whether the steamy stories belong on “adult” or “young adult” shelves. MSNBC.com reports:
The book industry is in a post-“Fifty Shades of Grey” state of mind, and some publishers and authors say they won’t be shy about including steamier bits for older teens in a budding genre labeled “new adult” fiction.
The category contains stories for the reader who might be too old for “Twilight” but not quite ready for “Fifty Shades.” A typical “new adult” heroine is an 18 to 24-year-old coming to terms with the trials and tribulations of young adult life away from the security of home. Several of these stories have already found success as e-books or on sites like GoodReads.com, which has over 20,000 titles on its new adult “shelf.”
“It’s about that time in your life when you’re trying to assert your maturity and forcing yourself to grow up against the odds,” Cora Carmack, author of the new adult novel “Losing It,” told TODAY.com.
And then there’s the sex.
“Young adult has a certain perspective to it. If there is sex, it’s behind closed doors,” Pamela Spengler-Jaffee, a spokesperson for HarperCollins, told TODAY.com. “New adult is going to help teachers classify books that have that same heightened level of emotion, but with an open door policy.”
Image: Teenager reading, via Shutterstock
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
Teenagers who use smartphones are more likely to engage in sexual activities than their peers who do not have the devices, a new study presented to the American Public Health Association has found. The reason may be as simple as convenience; smartphones enable teens to more easily arrange sexual encounters. MSNBC.com has more:
Smartphones likely aren’t directly causing risky teen sex, said study researcher Eric Rice, of the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work in Los Angeles. Rather, smartphones may make it easier for teens to arrange sexual encounters, Rice said.
“It’s a tool through which this sort of behavior can happen,” Rice said.
While parents have come up with strategies to monitor the online behavior of their kids on computers, “I don’t know that we’ve thought through quite as clearly what it means for teens to have the Internet on their phones 24 hours a day,” Rice said.
Rice said sex education programs should start to include discussions regarding the risks of seeking sex online. In addition, parents should use this as an opportunity to begin a discussion with their teen about sexual health and use of technology, he said.
“I don’t want parents to freak out,” Rice said.
This new research follows a recent study that found that teens who “sext” or send sexually suggestive text messages, are 7 times more likely to be sexually active.
Image: Teen on smartphone, via Shutterstock
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
A group of high school students at Piedmont High School in northern California are under investigation after their principal discovered they had created a “Fantasy Slut League” in which girls are recruited and boys earn points for performing various sex acts with them. More from CNN.com:
Piedmont High School Principal Rich Kitchens said in a letter to parents last week that boys organized “a ‘Fantasy Slut League’ in which our female students (unbeknownst to most of them) are drafted as part of the league,” according to CNN affiliate KGO.
“Male students earn points for documented engagement in sexual activities with female students,” the principal wrote, according to KGO. “Participation often involved pressure/manipulation by older students that included alcohol to impair judgment/control and social demands to be popular.”
Kitchens, who said the school is investigating the accusations, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
Piedmont Unified School District Superintendent Constance Hubbard’s office declined to release a copy of the principal’s letter.
But the superintendent is encouraging educators, parents and their teenagers to discuss how “to make good choices and to treat each other with respect and dignity,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
No criminal charges are currently being filed.
Image: Group of teenaged boys, via Shutterstock
Thursday, October 18th, 2012
The vaccine against human papillomavirus, which is the sexually transmitted virus that raises the risk of cervical and other cancers, has been a source of controversy among some parents who worry that vaccinating young girls and boys will inadvertently teach them that sex is permissible and safe. But a new study published this week in the journal Pediatrics has found that having the vaccine does not alter sexual behavior at all. The New York Times reports:
Looking at a sample of nearly 1,400 girls, the researchers found no evidence that those who were vaccinated beginning around age 11 went on to engage in more sexual activity than girls who were not vaccinated.
“We’re hopeful that once physicians see this, it will give them evidence that they can give to parents,” said Robert A. Bednarczyk, the lead author of the report and a clinical investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research Southeast, in Atlanta. “Hopefully when parents see this, it’ll be reassuring to them and we can start to overcome this barrier.”
HPV, the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States, can cause cancers of the cervix, anus and parts of the throat. Federal health officials began recommending in 2006 that girls be vaccinated as early as age 11 and last year made a similar recommendation for preadolescent boys. The idea is to immunize boys and girls before they become sexually active to maximize the vaccine’s protective effects.
Image: Tween girl and boy, via Shutterstock
Monday, August 20th, 2012
Though the number of teenagers who engage in oral sex remains high, with more than a third of American teenagers trying it at least once by age 17, it has decreased since 2002, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found. From CNN:
The study – based on computer surveys given to over 6,000 teens – also looked at the timing of first oral sex in relation to the timing of first vaginal intercourse. It found that the prevalence of having oral sex before vaginal intercourse was about the same as those having vaginal intercourse before oral sex.
“This new CDC analysis debunks many myths about when young people are initiating oral sex,” wrote Leslie Kantor, vice president for education at Planned Parenthood, a family planning advocacy group. “Although there has never been data to support it, there has been the perception that many teens engage in oral sex as a ‘risk-free’ alternative to intercourse. But the CDC analysis shows that sexually active young people are likely to engage in both activities,” she wrote.
But oral sex, like vaginal intercourse, is not risk-free. According to the CDC’s website, “numerous studies have demonstrated that oral sex can result in the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted disease,” not the least of which is Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the disease known to cause both cervical and some throat cancers.
Image: Teenage couple, via Shutterstock
