GETTING IN TUNE WITH TEEN REALITY

EVERYONE knows this hymn from the chorus of fear: Today's teenagers
are cigarette-puffing, drug-sniffing, binge-drinking sex addicts who
"hook up" with everyone they meet on MySpace.com.

Well, it turns out that perception is not reality, according to a new
study from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

This time the truth doesn't hurt - but it still stings a bit. Today's
teens, while hardly saints, are pretty good. They're not all
straitlaced - a naive expectation from hormone-ruled minds and bodies
- - but the 1990s are as dead as grunge.

Generation Y, largely the children of Baby Boomers, have less sex and
live more cleanly than the Generation Xers who preceded them. And
it's hard to believe these are the kids of parents who fired the
first rounds in the Sexual Revolution and popularized drug use. A
little "do as I say not as I did" is clearly at play in today's homes.

Only 54 percent of high school students have ever smoked a single
cigarette. In 1991, that number was 70percent. Seventy-four percent
of teens have had at least one drink, down 8 points since 1991.

Only 47 percent had at least one sexual experience, down from 54
percent. But the good news is that 63 percent of teenagers who have
had sex used condoms compared with 46 percent in 1991 - a peak of the
AIDS scare. STD education is working, despite dangerous White
House-mandated propaganda that claims condoms don't work.

Not all of the news is good. Marijuana use is up; these are the
Boomers' kids after all. And in what seems like a nod to their heroes
on the diamond, steroid use has doubled.

There are plenty of differences among the races. Blacks did not smoke
or use drugs as much as whites or Latinos, but were more likely to
have sex by age 13. Whites were more likely than blacks or Latinos to
binge drink. And Latinos used more hard drugs and attempted suicide
more frequently than blacks or whites.

Parents and teachers need to work with youths on these outstanding
issues - particularly on the alarming suicide and steroid rates - but
overall the data are getting more positive as public perception gets
more negative.

The kids aren't perfect, but they're showing improvement.