Chinese parents nowadays have a more tolerant attitude towards their teenage children's love lives, regarded as an absolute taboo for parents about 20 years ago.

China's educationists are trying to persuade parents of teenagers that their children's interest in the opposite sex is an encouraging sign, demonstrating that they are growing up healthily.

Some more enlightened parents believe teenage love could help the youngsters gain experience of dealing with the opposite sex, which will benefit future marriage lives.

The focus of concern in China has shifted from puppy love to premarital pregnancy, a far more thorny issue.

The hospital affiliated to the Family Planning Commission in Chongqing Municipality recently offered statistics showing that 13 percent of its abortion cases in 1998 were teenagers, while the figure has risen to 33.6 percent now.

"Sex education among middle school students is urgently needed," said Sun Yunxiao, research fellow with the China Teenager Development Research Center.

Liu Yongfeng, a senior official with the China Family Planning Association, said sex awareness is a basic demand for teenagers. Teachers and parents used to ignore this and were too shy to give proper sex education to teenagers.

Min Lefu, an expert with the Beijing Education and Science Institute, said the phenomenon of teenagers' physical maturity preceding their emotional maturity easily exposes them to dangers.

There are 327 million people aged 10-24 on the Chinese mainland, 26 percent of its total population. The average age for Chinese teenagers reaching puberty is 12-13. Therefore, China has 20 million teenagers reaching sexual maturity every year.

The latest survey by the China Teenage Development and Research Center shows that about one-third of interviewed middle school students have never received any sex education, and most of those who received sex education courses in school were dissatisfied with their quality. Meanwhile, most surveyed students who had engaged in sexual behavior confessed they were not familiar with contraception.

In April 2002, a textbook on sex was officially published on the mainland. However, the textbook is still not used, because schools which had previously agreed to use the book on a trial basis do not want to provide sexual education courses.

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2003)