Young Teens: Oral Sex Safer

Many 14-Year-Olds See It As Abstinence Or Safe Sex In Calif. Survey

(WebMD)  Oral Sex Doesn't Mean Safe Sex

"I would say it is encouraging that most adolescents are aware there is a risk of STDs from engaging in oral sex," he says. "This research clearly indicates that most youth also are aware that oral sex is less risky than sexual intercourse. But it is important for them to know that our scientific understanding of risk of STDs from oral sex isn't very well defined. We simply know there is a risk. How much risk we don't reliably know at this time."

This does not mean that unprotected oral sex is safe sex. Safe oral sex means using barrier protection — condoms or dental dams — to prevent infection. If abstinence is the only safe sex method a person uses, then abstinence must include oral sex as well as vaginal sex.

"This has to be a consistent message: When people engage in oral sex they should use a barrier method," Landry says. "Unfortunately, in the U.S., fewer and fewer teachers are talking about how condoms can be used to prevent STDs or even pregnancy — let alone how condoms can be used in the context of oral sex."


Is Oral Sex Really Sex?

Most adults see oral sex as sex. Teens don't.

"It is not considered real sex to teens," Halpern-Felsher says. "They think they are still virgins if they had oral sex compared to vaginal sex. Oral sex is something else. For teens it is not under the rubric of sex as we know it today."

This has important implications for every kind of sex education.

"It is so incredibly important that when people are working with teens they must not just say, 'When you are having sex,' because that won't cover oral sex," Halpern-Felsher says. "We really need to break the barriers and start talking about all the things we consider to be sexual experiences."


When To Have The Big Talk

Since oral sex is already prevalent at age 14, these conversations have to take place before a child reaches puberty.