Have teens gone totally wild?

That was one of the many questions posed to an audience of health care workers, sex researchers and students at the SexTech conference on March 22 in San Francisco. 

The conference, which focused on the trends in teen sexual behavior, attracted speakers from around the country.  Besides disproving  popular sexual myths  (is oral sex a new epidemic in this country? Answer: Not at all), speakers focused on their own findings around teen’s sexual activities. 

Also discussed at the conference was how to make sex education more effective for the new,  technically savvy generation of teens. 

At a time when teens are hooking up instead of making commitments, and television shows such as The “Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Gossip Girl” reinforce perceptions of sexual promiscuity, research into teen sexual trends has never been more important. 

However, researchers at the conference debunked the idea that teens are irresponsible about sex.

“Are kids gone wild? I don’t think so,” said John Santelli, professor and chairman of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University in New York. “If anything, they’re acting more responsibly.”

According to Santelli, the number of sexual partners reported by teens in grades 9 through 12 has gone down, and the number of students who have ever had sexual intercourse has also gone down.

Engaging with more sexual partners greatly increases the possibilities of getting sexually transmitted diseases/infections. Instead of promoting abstinence-only sexual education, Kirby believes that there should be a greater emphasis on how many partners an individual has.

On the downside, teen pregnancy rates in 2006 and 2007 went up after 14 straight years of decline. Even worse, he said, condom use among teenagers is down and “contraceptive rates are abysmally low,” especially compared with teens in countries such as Germany, France and Japan.

Doug Kirby, a senior research scientist with  Education Training Research Associates, a Scotts Valley, Calif.-based nonprofit that focuses on health education and awareness, spoke about the power of technology to spread awareness.

Simply giving a teen a pamphlet, or showing him or her a video, is not effective in helping that teen learn how to avoid risk, Kirby said. However, education that involves an interactive element has been seen to be highly effective. Studies have also shown that such educational approaches are more productive if information is shared.

For example, the state of North Carolina just introduced a new method of more personalized sexual education. Teens can anonymously text in questions and receive a “cautious, nonjudgmental reply” from the Bird and Bees Text Line, according to a May 3 article in The New York Times, titled “When the Cellphone Teaches Sex Education.” 

Already, major health organizations, such as the Guttmacher Institute, are using social networking sites such as Facebook to reach out to teens. Researchers are also putting out information on interactive sites such as Second Life, an online virtual world where visitors can "transport" to the resources they need.

In the end, who you are is almost as important to your sexual health as what you do. 

According to Santelli, a person’s economic, academic and social background, along with his or her choices, can lower the risk of sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs) and pregnancy. Personal resilience — the ability to overcome obstacles — along with intelligence and educational achievement, lower risk, Santelli said. 

How old you are when puberty begins also is a factor. According to Santelli, those who mature earlier are put “at greater risk. You are treated like a sexual person.” 

Santelli said that factors that reduce a teen’s sexual risk include being involved in an extra-curricular activities, being in a functional family, being exposed to a adult role model and having access to sexual education.

While family's important, teens still face choices on their own.

“I guess teens are just maturing faster than they ever have,” says Zoe Pleasure (’12).  One's sexuality  "definitely has to do with how comfortable you are with yourself, situation at home, and how you are doing in school.”