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"\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\n\n\nI am blessed with a seventeen-year-old sister who at least attempts to keep me tuned to the newest high school music, trends and fashion. I'm twenty-six, but every time she shocks me with some other lurid tale of teen mayhem, I feel as old as Grandmother Willow.Teens these days, with their tiny beeping machines and their pants around their ankles! And their hip-hop music! And their promiscuity! And\u2014seriously, TURN THAT DANG MUSIC DOWN!But not so fast, Olds. While the generation gap between teenagers and their parents may seem fathomless and massive, it looks like modern-day teenagers' sexual activity rates align with that of their parents' back in the day. Specifically, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute in New York, running on UPI.com, 33 percent of 16-year-olds, 50 percent of 17-year-olds, 61 percent of 18-year-olds and 71 percent of 19-year-olds report having sex. These figures match up with those determined when their parents were teenagers themselves.The lead researcher says: \"Policymakers and the media often sensationalize teen sexual behavior, suggesting that adolescents as young as 10 or 11 are increasingly sexually active. But the data just don't support that concern. Rather, we are seeing teens waiting longer to have sex, using contraceptives more frequently, and being less likely to become pregnant than peers of past decades.\" Additionally, the likelihood of sexual activity at any age was decreased by 25 percent.These findings are unexpected, to say the least, but it does make sense when you think about it: Discussions of safe sex and STIs are much more frank today then they were in our parents' adolescence, and \"cautionary tale\" shows like MTV's Teen Mom have been lowering the teen pregnancy rate across the country.Follow Anna on Twitter: @annabreslawPhoto via Thinkstockphoto"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a12288/teen-parent-sex-rate/?click=cos_new>