These days teen sex is all over, from news headlines to articles in Buzzfeed magazine, it’s everywhere. As opposed to our older customs the topics of teens sexual relevance have made a lasting impact on our society to this day. Teen sex, not a thing of the past nor future, but of the here and now. Of course, the issue is not that teens are having sex, but having unprotected and uneducated sex.

Although it has not been proven to be directly linked, it may be correct to assume that lack of sex education could explain why there are so many cases of sexual assault. The mentality of someone who commits sexual assault is that they don’t need consent. Consent: the act of permitting an action when one is clear minded and aware of the situation in full. Due to this definition, it means that a sexual assault can be considered a sexual assault if the victim is drunk, high, sleeping, drugged, and even too tired to be considered fully aware.

Teen pregnancy has also become more common over the past years with the rise of publicity from various TV shows, such as Teen Mom. There was a huge boom of publicity from many young girls and the show received rave reviews, both positive and negative, about the teen moms and their children. After the show first aired MTV said, “We had so many applicants for next season we didn’t know what to do with them.” They also say, “Some of the girls that were applying said they weren’t even pregnant yet, but we’re planning on doing so.” 

In 2014 alone there were 249,078 babies born to girls ages 14-19 according to the CDC. The statistics of teen pregnancy have actually been going down since 2011, which is good. This has to do with the rise of Planned Parenthood and birth control now being covered in health care programs, that has given girls options other than abortions.

Speaking of abortions, there are about 700,000 abortions a year. If all those babies were to be born there would be a population problem, food and water shortage and just overall not enough space to live. Abortions, while some may agree it should not be the first choice someone has for a form of birth control, is a second option.

These days there are many forms of birth control;  IUD, the pill, a monthly shot, condoms and of course abstaining from sex altogether. Coming back to the main point: the school sexual education system has a big role to play in all of this.

As we covered before, many sexual education programs could best be described as sub-par and lacking in more categories than just one. Schools can’t just show a person how to not have sex, they have to show them how to have sex safely. Although, cutting these necessary aspects of sexual education from the school’s curriculum is not all their fault.

The lack of sexual education in schools is not only affecting people as teens but in their adult lives too. Many students that have not been taught about sex in their earlier ages have said that they wish they would’ve had more knowledge when they were younger so that they could teach their kids.