Innocence lost from the age of 13
HONG KONG schoolboys start dating at the age of 13 and, by graduation day, most will have kissed a girl, read pornographic magazines and watched Category III movies.
An average of two girls in each classroom will wonder whether they are pregnant and one in 170 will have experienced the trauma of an abortion.
A youth sexuality study, by the Family Planning Association, asked more than 4,000 teenage students about their sexual attitudes and experiences. Previous studies, in 1981 and 1986, act as a marker for changing values.
The findings provide an insight into the tumultuous teen years at a time when abortion and youth pregnancy rates are climbing.
The study found students started dating between the ages of 10 and 14, with most boys embarking on their nervous first dates at the age of 13 - increasingly because of peer pressure.
Boys began dating because most of their schoolmates appeared to be doing so (70 per cent), to develop a relationship (64 per cent), and because they were sexually attracted to a girl (50 per cent).
Girls took the plunge largely because everyone was dating (83 per cent) and, arguably influenced by tradition, they felt unable to turn down a boy's invitation (50 per cent).
Many said they held hands, embraced and kissed on a date, but only 60 boys and 40 girls in 1,000 admitted to having had sex.
Six of every 10 students who dated said they had fallen in love, but when asked how they would behave on a date produced ''quite disconcerting'' answers, the researchers said. Most agreed they would hold hands, embrace and kiss.
MORE than one quarter of the boys said they would caress their partner, given the chance, and 14 per cent - or one in seven boys - said they would have sex with a date whether or not they loved her.
''Love does not appear to be a prerequisite for intimacy among these youths,'' FPA researchers said. It was okay to have sex before marriage, according to almost half the boys and one quarter of girls sampled and more than one quarter of both sexes approved of abortion.
One in 16 girls - about two in each classroom - said they had been worried they might be pregnant, but only one in 100 had used contraceptives. One in 20 boys had worried about their girlfriends becoming pregnant, but one in 100 used contraceptives.
Decreasing numbers of students had correct ideas on the chances of pregnancy, and more than half were ignorant of the high risk of pregnancy two weeks before menstruation.
Boys and girls gleaned more sex education information from magazines, television and sex education seminars than from their parents.
Most students said contraceptives should be available to unmarried people, but a small number who had already had sex said contraceptives should only be supplied to those who were wed.
About two-thirds of students said it was all right to date several people at the same time, and large numbers approved of premarital sex, prostitution, multiple sex partners and pornography.
One in five boys said they approved of having multiple sex partners, more than half accepted pornography, and one quarter had no moral problems with prostitution.
More than half of the boys and almost a third of girls had read pornographic magazines. Most boys and one in five girls had watched pornographic movies.
Most students intended to marry in the future, but girls were more uncertain about that.. Life without marriage appealed to girls more than boys. For the first time in the 10-year study, the majority of boys and girls were happy with the idea of living with a partner outside marriage.
