Questions teens submit to a popular sex education website sponsored by Rutgers University suggest that young people lack basic information on sex, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), says www.sxetc.org program manager Danene Sorace. Teens submitted questions on the symptoms of STDs, whether diseases are transmissible by oral sex, the “rhythm method” of contraception and how reliable it is, etc. to the site’s “Ask the Experts” section, which receives almost 1,000 messages per month. Sorace reported at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality that many teens want to know about confidentiality issues in obtaining birth control, and frequently ask about parental consent laws for abortion. Sorace argued that the site’s popularity indicates that students are not getting this basic and much-needed information anywhere else. In a September study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 84 percent of teens interviewed said their school’s sex education program covered abstinence, while only 61 percent said “abortion.”
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