Teen survey reveals fears about early sex

Teenagers still have qualms about "going all the way" rather than being stereotypical sex-mad young people responsible for high rates of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancies, a report suggests today.

The age-old conflict between being one of the lads and admitting inexperience and nervousness about sex still torments boys, while girls both show a sophisticated understanding of sexual relationships and, sometimes, admit to consenting to sex to keep their partners.

Young people are sexually active earlier than they were - the average age is now 16 - but many believe their peers are more experienced than is actually the case, research has already shown.

Opinions from teenagers gathered in discussions led by consultancy Opinion Leader Research and published in "Are you ready?" demonstrate just how complicated some of their decision-making is.

As one boy in a group of 15-16-year-olds put it: "Your friends influence you. Peer pressure. They can get right down your neck. They can be like, come on, you haven't done it yet. And then you think, okay then."

Or as a younger boy put it: "It's like a competition. It's like the first one, to, like get off with a girl or something, that's all it is, it's like a big game."

The other sex is not immune from such pressures either.

A woman in the 17-19-year-old group, said: "Depends what group you're in. It totally depends again on the young people that you hang around with or the person themselves."

Image and reputation still matters. A younger teenager said: "The girls ... they get called names. If boys do it's all right for them. It's like say, if you do something like with a boy, you can be called a tart, but if a boy did it they're like 'oh - good work' ".

Girls and young women however are more likely to talk about the emotional side.

"If you are questioning it, you are not ready." But then one of the older male teenagers could also put it this way: "If you are sensible enough to sit down with your girlfriend and have a chat about it, that shows a little bit that you are ready."

The teenagers were unimpressed by sex education in schools, saying it was poorly delivered , did not prepare them for the realities of relationships, and concentrated almost exclusively on heterosexual relationships, thus being largely irrelevant for young gay and lesbian people.

Anne Weyman, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, which commissioned the report, said: "Young people have quite a sophisticated understanding of sexual relationships but they are stranded in an information wilderness."

The benefits of talking to parents about sex and relationships were also enormous.