Of teens who are sexually active, a third had their first experience at age 14 years or younger, yet almost one in ten say they have not been taught sex ed at school according to research carried out by Marie Stopes International. Key findings in the report SEX – telling it like it is: a parent and teen insight include:

* 22% of parents think that their teen is sexually active, but in reality 31% claim to be. At the same time, 13% of parents admit that they wouldn’t know whether their teen was sexually active or not.

* The large majority of parents (90%) rate themselves as approachable on the topic of sex, whereas only three-quarters (74%) of teens agree.

* Half of all teenagers (51%) say they either don’t talk about personal issues with their parents or don’t fully confide in their parents on some personal issues.

* In general more parents think they’ve had “the talk” about sexual health than teens do (80% vs. 73%), with 20% of parents admitting that they have never had the conversation with their teenager.

* Teenagers who have had “the talk” with their parent on average become sexually active later than those who haven’t had the talk (15.3yrs v 14.7yrs).

* Although 61% of teens rate their knowledge of sexual health issues as good/excellent: nearly half (45%) were not aware that they could be infected with Chlamydia but have no symptoms; 3 in 10 (30%) teens were unaware whether they could contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs) from oral sex; and over half (52%) think that by using a condom, they won’t contract herpes.

* Many parents (56%) and teens (69%) feel that sex education at the teen’s school is of average or lower quality.

* Less than half of teens who have received sex education at school claim to have been taught topics such as sexual decision making (51%), emotional aspects of sex (39%) and non-consensual sex (43%).

* 66% of teens and 75% of parents support mandatory sex education in schools.