Sex for favours begins in middle school, students say
NB Telegraph-Journal | Saint John
As published on page B1/B2 on March 3, 2006
Practice has been common among young teens for decades
By Sandra Davis
Telegraph-Journal
Girls as young as middle school age are trading sex for favours, Grade 9 high school students confirm.
The young women, who attend an Uptown high school, said the practice of young girls performing oral sex and masturbation on their male colleagues is fairly common and can start as young as Grade 7.
Couples engaging in the sex acts aren't even dating most of the time, the girls said.
"I remember one girl who had done it with eight different guys," said one young woman.
"Mostly girls do it to feel better about themselves. It makes them think someone wants them."
Earlier this week, the supervisor of guidance for Saint John-area schools acknowledged the issue of young girls using sex as a bargaining tool is a widespread problem.
The favour being sought can be as simple as a ride to the shopping mall.
The practice is nothing new.
Two years ago, a promising Prince Edward Island athlete was acquitted on a charge of inciting two girls under the age of 14 to touch him for sexual purposes. That trial was filled with revelations of routine casual oral sex involving male high school athletes and Grade 7 girls.
Some sociologists have suggested that sex in exchange for goods or favours has been happening between teens for decades.
Pull tabs from pop cans and labels from beer bottles have been considered sex tickets in the past.
Over the last five years, it's become coloured jelly bracelets, which Madonna started wearing 20 years ago.
The cheap bracelets have gained a wicked reputation because they're linked to an Internet game that involves the exchange of sexual favours. The game involves youngsters snapping a bracelet off another's wrist and expecting to receive a sexual favour. The colour of the bracelet dictates the sex act owed.
In many cases, the public response to the bracelets has been to ban them.
An Ipsos-Read survey for the Canadian Association for Adolescent Health found that one in four students believed that oral sex is a form of abstinence.
The survey is based on online responses from 1,171 interviews with teens aged 14 to 17.
As published on page B1/B2 on March 3, 2006
Practice has been common among young teens for decades
By Sandra Davis
Telegraph-Journal
Girls as young as middle school age are trading sex for favours, Grade 9 high school students confirm.
The young women, who attend an Uptown high school, said the practice of young girls performing oral sex and masturbation on their male colleagues is fairly common and can start as young as Grade 7.
Couples engaging in the sex acts aren't even dating most of the time, the girls said.
"I remember one girl who had done it with eight different guys," said one young woman.
"Mostly girls do it to feel better about themselves. It makes them think someone wants them."
Earlier this week, the supervisor of guidance for Saint John-area schools acknowledged the issue of young girls using sex as a bargaining tool is a widespread problem.
The favour being sought can be as simple as a ride to the shopping mall.
The practice is nothing new.
Two years ago, a promising Prince Edward Island athlete was acquitted on a charge of inciting two girls under the age of 14 to touch him for sexual purposes. That trial was filled with revelations of routine casual oral sex involving male high school athletes and Grade 7 girls.
Some sociologists have suggested that sex in exchange for goods or favours has been happening between teens for decades.
Pull tabs from pop cans and labels from beer bottles have been considered sex tickets in the past.
Over the last five years, it's become coloured jelly bracelets, which Madonna started wearing 20 years ago.
The cheap bracelets have gained a wicked reputation because they're linked to an Internet game that involves the exchange of sexual favours. The game involves youngsters snapping a bracelet off another's wrist and expecting to receive a sexual favour. The colour of the bracelet dictates the sex act owed.
In many cases, the public response to the bracelets has been to ban them.
An Ipsos-Read survey for the Canadian Association for Adolescent Health found that one in four students believed that oral sex is a form of abstinence.
The survey is based on online responses from 1,171 interviews with teens aged 14 to 17.
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