"...they don't mistrust the young people. They really believe young people are competent and capable of making well-informed decisions" - Study Tour Participant

"At a time when 70% of 18-year-olds in the United States have had sexual intercourse, we cannot afford to ignore the needs of sexually active youth" - James Wagoner, President
Advocates for Youth

Teens & Sex in Europe

Available on VHS, 17 minutes

Advocates for Youth and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte sponsor study tours to the Netherlands, Germany, and France to explore the reasons behind these nations' much lower rates of teenage pregnancy, birth, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Teens & Sex in Europe: A Story of Rights, Respect & Responsibility, narrated by Mariette Hartley, provides a fascinating glimpse into the sexual health attitudes of Dutch, German, and French teens and their parents and into the attitudes of government officials, educators, and health care providers. European and U.S. teens speak their minds about protecting themselves within sexual relationships. All of this is against a background of funny, frank media clips drawn from larger multimedia campaigns to reduce HIV infections and unintended pregnancy.

Learn more at the Advocates for Youth site.

According to a study from Advocates for Youth:

In the United States, the teen pregnancy rate is more than nine times higher than that in the Netherlands, nearly four times higher than the rate in France, and nearly five times higher than that in Germany.

In the United States, the teen abortion rate is nearly eight times higher than the rate in Germany, nearly seven times higher than that in the Netherlands, and nearly three times higher than the rate in France.

In the United States, the estimated HIV prevalence rate in young men ages 15 to 24 is over five times higher than the rate in Germany, nearly three times higher than the rate in the Netherlands, and about 1.5 times higher than that in France.