BRUSSELS — Flemish youths are having safe sex but are starting at a younger age, losing their virginity on average at age 15.2, a new study has revealed.
 
The Leuven Catholic University survey also revealed that students of vocational education are having sex from the age of 14.9.

But students at general secondary education on average don’t start having sex until the age of 15.7.

The legal age of consent in Belgium is 16.

The random survey of 373 teenagers aged between 15 and 20 was conducted by three Leuven university students in Antwerp and Limburg.

And while the study was too small to be representative, it is clear that sex has permeated through to the teenage years.

Sex is no longer something that teens delay to late adolescence or their first real relationship, newspaper ‘De Standaard’ reported on Wednesday.

This is in contrast to a pioneering study 15 years ago by Fons Geeraert which indicated that youths first started having sex at age 17.

Meanwhile, the new research has revealed that vocational education students have more experience in general with all forms of sex than general secondary school students.

Children from divorced parents start having sex earlier than other youths, the study also revealed.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news