Sex ed is up to the parents
[NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]

Newsday - Long Island, N.Y.
Author:                 THE BALTIMORE SUN
Date:                    Oct 18, 2005
Start Page:            B.13
Edition:                 Combined editions
Section:                HEALTH
Text Word Count: 939

Abstract (Document Summary)

In "The Real Truth About Teens & Sex" (Perigee, $23.95), [Sabrina Weill] says teenagers' sexual behavior has gotten increasingly public - and casual.

She reports that nearly one in four 14-year-olds claim they knew peers who had had sex at home - while their parents were home. One in 10 teens agreed that it is "normal for someone my age to have sex with someone they met at a party." As a teen magazine columnist and editor - she was founding editor of CosmoGIRL! and is a former editor of Seventeen - Weill has spent years talking and corresponding with teenagers about sex.

The messages shouldn't come in the form of one big talk, Weill and [Robert Blum] said, but in a running conversation and commentary. Parents should start by watching television with their teenagers and listening to their music. When they see sexual situations, they can start talking about what's onscreen in an open-ended way. What are the potential ramifications of what's happening? How might the characters feel the next day?

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