Last week, two unsurprising reports on the sexual activities of teenagers were released. The first report by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy mostly addressed public concerns and hard facts about sexual activity among young adolescents.The report found one of every five adolescents has had sex by the time they are 15 years old, some starting as early as 12.

The second report by the Kaiser Family Health Foundation addressed young people’s concerns with sex and sexual health, finding many young people are misinformed about the health risks associated with unprotected sex and have incomplete information on contraceptives.

Both reports described adolescents’ desire for more information about important issues pertaining to sex, such as how to recognize sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS infection, what STD and HIV testing involves, and where they can go to get tested, with some even simply wanting more information on how to use a condom.

One of the implications of the results of the campaign’s study rightly suggested that poor sex education at the middle school level may be responsible for students’ lack of knowledge regarding basic facts relating to contraception and STDs.

I don’t know what sort of sex education anyone else received in middle school, but mine came up painfully short: It was in my sixth grade science class, and all we received was a weeklong session in which the boys and girls were separated; each group was shown videos and slides describing their respective reproductive systems.

In my group, the girls were told exactly how pregnancy occurs, but the real sex education stopped there. The focus was then shifted to what would happen to our bodies once we began our menstrual cycle.

This instruction came a little late for me, seeing as how I had already had my period for a year before this lovely little talk telling us of our “blossoming into womanhood.”

The teachers handed the girls some sanitary napkins and tampons and herded us out haphazardly to navigate the road of relationships ahead of us alone and quite under-informed. We were only told what had to happen for a woman to get pregnant, and our teachers’ implicit disapproval of the whole process told us we should never attempt anything close to it.

Without them actually saying a word, we got the impression that this thing called sex was taboo and something that was unacceptable to talk about in public.

This kind of hush-hush attitude toward sex, not to mention the often too little, too late instruction most young teens receive, puts them in a dangerous place. Sex becomes like alcohol — but only virtually forbidden instead of illegal.

They are taught that some time in the far-off future they will be able to partake in this glorious act, but seeing as it’s something they’re told not to do, they’ll want to do it even more and do it unwisely as a result. We should know, as college students who have been through the stormy years of adolescence, that the urge to rebel is powerful.

It’s scary to think that these teens are being set loose upon the world without being told all the facts about sex — because, frankly, most of us will end up “doing it” some time in our lives, most sooner rather than later.

For example, according to the Foundation’s study, half of those surveyed didn’t know that 25 percent of sexually active young people contract an STD, and one-third were unaware that people under the age of 25 account for 50 percent of all new HIV infections in this country.

Maybe if they were aware of the real risks, they would have more of a reason to not have sex instead of just being told to wait until marriage “because I said so.”

We need something more compelling than a silent dictator of “morals” to be able to deal with a natural human act such as sex in a realistic manner.

America’s fear of “corrupting” their youth has lead to horrible sex education as a result. We need to be able to have open, frank discussions about sex with our parents and teachers early in our lives because it plays an important role in the intimate relationships we will have in the future.

Even though I agree that sex has no place in anyone’s life until they are mature enough to deal with the possible consequences of their actions, there isn’t a set age at which one is “ready for sex.” If that were the case, I’m thinking it would have to be around 42.

We are the only ones who can decide for ourselves if we are mature enough to have sex — no one can make that decision for us. It’s about time that teens be fully informed early on of what sex can bring to a relationship and to their bodies.