The survey also found that:

25 percent of males and 30 percent of females had their first sexual experience at 15 or 16 years old

20 percent of males and 18 percent of females waited until ages 18 to 21

14 percent of males and 13 percent of females had their first sexual experience when they were younger than 14

Seven percent of males and females waited until they were older than 22

By Erin Wiltgen

chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035

CHAPEL HILL -- Even in a society permeated by sexual messages, most Americans still choose to wait at least until 17 or 18 years old for their first sexual experience, according to an Adam & Eve survey.

The survey, released last month, states that the average male (more than 31 percent) and female (about 30 percent) had their first sexual experience at 17 or 18, which, though lower than most parents would like to see, is still higher than many said they expected. Katy Zyolerin, Adam & Eve director of public relations, said she was surprised by the numbers.

"Because the media's always telling us about how there's so much sexuality on TV, and to see that the average age was 17 years old I think speaks pretty well for our youth," she said. "I think it was reassuring."

The Web-based survey, which polled more than 1,000 Americans 18 years and older, was composed of 18 questions, the first of which asked the age of the first sexual experience. Over the next 17 months, Adam & Eve, an adult products store, will release the information from the other questions on its Web site.

Although Georgie Clemens, director of youth ministry at St. Thomas More Catholic Church and mother of five children, said she's skeptical of the survey's results because she thinks Adam & Eve has a vested interest in the results, she also said teenage sexuality is prevalent and problematic.

"I come from the idea that sex is a sacred thing shared between two individuals," she said. "When young people are viewing it as maybe a casual weekend, do-it-with-anyone kind of thing, I think that is a disturbing trend for our society."

Jane Brown, professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC and a Carolina Population Center fellow, said she worries most about the consequences of unprotected sex.

"Seventeen- and 18-year-olds are still teenagers," she said. "And it's still too early to be raising children."

In 2004, about 745,000 females under the age of 20 reported pregnancies nationwide, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And while birth rates among girls 15 to 19 years old declined from 1991 to 2005, they increased from 2005-2007, according to CDCP.

"Unfortunately, still many of the young people who have sex even at 17 or 18 years old are not using contraceptives," Brown said. "We still have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the industrialized world."

Besides just the physical dangers of pregnancy and STDs, Clemens said sexually active teenagers don't understand the emotional connection of physical intimacy.

"A lot of times the kids aren't mature enough to handle that connection, and they end up getting hurt psychologically," she said.

It's a problem that has no one-stop source.

"Parents still aren't talking about it," Brown said. "Religion says only that premarital sex is a sin. And schools have been mandated to teach abstinence until marriage only. So kids haven't gotten accurate information about how to keep from getting pregnant or getting sexually transmitted infections."

The place to get that information, Brown said, is open communication at home.

"I think they should start an 18-year-long conversation," she said. "They should start with helping their children be comfortable with their bodies, able to talk about their body, name the body parts appropriately and accurately. They are what we call askable parents."

By talking to their children, parents not only get kids comfortable with their own sexuality, they convey their own personal values and can counter those sent by society through the mass media, said Charlie Tuggle, professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNC and an advisor for the student group, Carolina Hope, which preaches abstinence.

"You can't keep them from everything, but you can certainly try to counterbalance those messages," he said. "If your message to those kids is basically saying nothing, then the only message they get is from the media."

That as it may be, Tuggle said he still thinks society bears a brunt of the responsibility as well.

"We have a very permissive society," he said. "We don't really think about the consequences, we just think about the immediate pleasure. But if you stop to think about all the consequences that are possible, then maybe you wouldn't rush into something that can be deeply meaningful between two people as opposed to a quick little excursion to the land of pleasure."

While this temptation has always existed, the main issue in today's society is the easy access children have to sexual material, Clemens said. Whether on billboards, TV, comedy, magazine covers or the internet, kids see sexual messages everywhere in their daily lives.

"When I was a kid, we thought it was great to open up the dictionary and look up improper words," Clemens said. "Today it's literally at the tip of their fingertips at any time they want, and no one has to know."