Teens Perceive Oral Sex as Less Risky: Survey
About 20 percent of ninth-graders admitted having had oral sex and almost one-third said they wanted to try it soon, according to a survey of 580 students in two California public high schools.
Respondents, with an average age of 14 1/2, said they thought oral sex was less risky and more common than sexual intercourse among people their age, the Associated Press reported. The survey appears in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The perceptions were similar among boys and girls, according to the researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. "Girls and boys both see oral sex as not being a big deal," said lead author Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, associate professor of pediatrics.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, oral sex can lead to sexually transmitted diseases, including infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
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