Why Condoms Should be Made Available in High School Once adolescents experience puberty, there are a variety of physical and psychological changes that impact their lives. Perhaps the most challenging of these is the development of secondary sex characteristics and an increased desire for sexual experimentation. Many teens between the ages of 14-19 are unprepared to deal with sexual exploration in a safe manner. Other teens are more at-risk for engaging in risky sexual behavior because they come from broken, poor or violent backgrounds. As reported in Nation's Health (2001), many boys from inner-cities react negatively when they perceive themselves as responsible for risky behavior, "Boys face violence, poverty, absent fathers, a lack of school success, hopelessness and a faltering sense of belonging. Approaches that are built on blaming boys for risk behavior, or that seeks to scare them into responsible behavior, are bound to produce defiance or defensiveness" (D.C. 9).
Teens today live in a world that is much different than the society inhabited by their grandparents. Changes in family values, greater access and portrayal of sexual imagery, and
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