quite right, hrs. in fact teenage girls should be taught by mature men whose reliability and moral rectitude are guaranteed by religious costume. i would volunteer for this task but a lifetime of depravity written on my face would not be masked by any cassock.

in reality, mixing with adolescent boys behind the bicycle shed is not the worst thing that can happen, though it can be bad enough. girls and women are used and abused by our commercial culture, and the only guard is the education parents and schools can provide.

a lobby group of concerned parents can bend state education ministers, and participation in p & c meetings can encourage extra-curricular guidance at local level. not every parent is a good parent, but a few good parents getting active can make a big difference in a neighborhood, and a nation.

Johntas - you may have noticed its always the men who express difficulty in believing the figures concerning sexual abuse or harrassement. If women starting writing in in droves expressing disbelief too then there might be reason to query them, I think.

You ask which is better - to be thought frigid or easy? Either are devastating. Remember, we are not talking mature men and women here, but kids. The force of peer pressure is something many forget - or maybe it, too has increased. But I have spoken to many older people who remember school days as horrible through peer pressure - being friendless and alone or excluded from the herd. Many of todays kids too are offspring of working parents, The Group assumes more importance for them.

As to what can be done? I think the first step is to admit that a problem exists - and not try to dismiss it because of our own agendas. Nor to minimise it. Adolescent suicide figures are extremely high, along with self-harming behaviours: all part of the same problem. One thing I have been advocating for a long time is more community involvement with High Schools. With the loss of the extended family dynamic (and the reasons aren't of interest right now, simply the fact)kids are missing out on adult influence in their lives - apart from "authority figures" like teacher and, all too often the police.

Volunteer programmes utilising the community more are, I would assert, actually a necessity in some cases. Especially for those from dysfunctional families who recieve no guidance at all.

Re stats on sexual assault by age 18, you might want to have a look here: http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/statistics.html Perhaps the most interesting stat is that only about 1 assault in 7 is reported. Depending on how you define "sexual assault", 30% is definitely justifiable.

HRS says "Any parent would know that teenage girls are definitely non-sexcharged and have no interest at all in sex." So all those posters of pretty boy-bands on teenage girls bedroom walls have nothing to do with sex?

Surprise surprise that the pervert (sorry porn industry) in Canberra is giving their backing to the Greens in the upcoming election. I wonder if they are helping out financially. Maybe you might know CJ. A great deal of publicity has been given in regards to the funding of the coalition from the Exclusive Brethren. Don't hold your breath for the ABC/SBS to be running to much re the relationship between Greens and Eros.

Johnj - HRS was being facetious. He's attacking the article for being harsh on men, which I don't think is all that justified.

To HRS and others of his ilk who are agitating for more men's rights - I say, fair enough.

But to do it through attacking things focused on women's rights isn't the way to go about it. It just makes you look hostile and angry.

I agree that perhaps this article overemphasises the severity of the situation, but perhaps, not as much as you think.

And the end fact of the matter is that there is a degrading sexual attitude toward women, any level of sexual assault is too high, and women's rights are important as well. As I see it, these three things are pretty self evident.

When an article comes along lamenting this situation, I can see some merit in questioning the level of accuracy, but to attack it outright on the basis of improving men's rights just doesn't seem like a constructive course of action at all. In fact, I think it's very counterproductive in terms of the image of those pushing for men's rights.

Well said, TRTL. You've expressed my own ideas more succinctly than I would have - and far more diplomatically!