By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The age for being sexually active is steadily decreasing, which some suggest is due to youngsters easy access to Internet porn sites.
The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs conducted a survey on 13,721 secondary school students in 2007 to ascertain the first time they kissed, had physically contact or sexual intercourse.
According to the data released by Rep. Kim Choon-jin of the Democratic Party on Thursday, 58 percent or 8,013 of the respondents said they had experienced ``sexual relations'' encompassing sex, kissing, and other forms of physical contact.
Of those students who said yes to having had some form of sexual contact, those that had experienced ``sexual relations,'' meaning kissing or touching, before 11 years old rose to 11.6 percent in 2007 from 4 percent the previous year. Those between the ages of 12 and 14 stood at 19.4 percent, a two-fold increase from 2006.
Of the ``experienced'' students, 548 responded that they had full blown sexual intercourse. It showed 19 percent of them had sex when they were second graders in junior high school aged at 16. About 17.4 percent said they had their first sex by the age of 17.
In 2006, 25 percent of sexually active students said they first had sex in the first grade of junior high school aged about 18, the largest portion, followed by 20 percent who had sex in the third grade of junior high school.
The survey found that the ``video room''ㅡwhere one can watch a movie in a tiny closed roomㅡis the most sought-after spot among students for sex, followed by Korean-style karaoke.
``The Internet should be blamed most for making youngsters more sexually active,'' said Chung In-myung, secretary general of the Korean Youth Pure Love Movement. ``We have found nine out of ten youngsters begin watching pornography when they are junior high school students through the Internet. For those with a strong curiosity for sex, such films may motivate them to follow what they see.''
Chung also criticized businesses for leaning toward sexually provocative materials to catch customers' attention. ``A recent survey shows Koreans are exposed to ads including lewd photos or images more than 100,000 times before they reach the age of 18,'' he said.
The sex education expert said sex education at home is most effective and therefore parents should have ample knowledge of the issue so as to teach their children.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
