This research focused on a group of "at risk" early school-leavers in programmes for the disadvantaged. The trend is worrying. Larger studies show that the age at which teenagers have their first experience of sexual intercourse has plummeted by three years in the past decade, from an average age of 19 for girls and 18 for boys, to an average age of and-a-half today, with some starting kissing at 12, heavy petting at 13 and full sex at the age of Many teens see virginity as a stigma, research at UCD has found, yet girls who succumb to the pressure to have sex are labelled "sluts" while boys are regarded as "studs". The greatest influence on girls' sexuality is the attitude of boys who they desire to please. This scenario is as predictable as any MTV rap or r 'n' b video, in which the boys declaim their macho sexuality as the girls dance in service to the boys' beat.
Between the ages of 11 and 16, Neelam watched porn most days. She quickly got over that initial shock. For Neelam, it started with a simple curiosity about sex. It just felt like I was satisfying a need. I remember how quickly I got desensitised to it ā 10 men and one woman, orgies that were basically a writhing mass of bodies, women being slapped or otherwise humiliated ā and I was accessing all this before I had even had sex.
But, the very media platform that helps us connect also has allowed the pornography industry to explode. Thanks to the Internet, tweens and teens have an infinite catalog of pornographic images available with just the click of a mouse. Only Boys Look at Porn, Right?
His face lit up so much I remember thinking he looked like the sun. I was 4 at this time. He was so proud of me as he cheered me on.