For us it was a couple of years. You know, that time between oral sex and intercourse or that period of "technical virginity." But apparently, teens today aren't even bothering with the whole "technical" part.
"There is a widespread belief that teens engage in nonvaginal forms of sex, especially oral sex, as a way to be sexually active while still claiming that, technically, they are virgins," Laura Lindberg of the Guttmacher Institute in New York, who led the study, said in a statement.
Well. Yes. Oral sex to us was like super-special kissing. We certainly didn't think of it as sex, and will forever stand by the fact that we lost our virginity two weeks before our eighteenth birthday (no need to rehash; you already heard about all that earlier today).
"However, our research shows that this supposed substitution of oral sex for vaginal sex is largely a myth. There is no good evidence that teens who have not had intercourse engage in oral sex with a series of partners."
Because apparently kids who are having oral sex are also having intercourse, and if there is a period of "technical virginity," for most teens in the study, it was six months or less, unlike back in our day (we know, so long, long ago).
Even more interesting: according to the study white kids have the most anal sex.
[Reuters: Teen sex study doubts "technical virginity"]