Nancy Jergins

About the author: Nancy Jergins is the director of communications for Family First, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of families in society.

Premarital teen sex was once the exception, not the rule, in American society. Today, however, magazines, television, and movies feature and glamorize teen promiscuity. Teens are frequently emotionally unready for the responsibilities and risks inherent in sex. Unless parents begin to take charge and teach teens that premarital sex is unacceptable behavior, society will have to deal with the misery of brokenhearted and ailing children.

You may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when teenage sex was the exception, not the rule.

Sex sells

Of course, today, teen sex proudly stands fists on hips, smack in the middle of the public consciousness. In soap operas, it's...