Wow Jim, sorry, the thread is about HIV. I wasn't trying to moralize. I was remembering my own acting out in my late teens, mostly because of a nasty dynamic in the home. Binge drinking, speeding, bar fights, all sorts of reckless behavior. Lots of my peers were like that. But those with better home lives generally were not. No girl let me have unprotected sex with her.

I can imagine two boys of that age, suffering all the abuse that I did plus a layer of hate from their fathers for not being the football playing he-man they wanted, being sexually attracted to each other and being less than diligent than the girls I dated. I can imagine a boy trying to get the love he missed from his father in the bed of an older man.

Maybe your knowledge of psychology is so much deeper than mine that you can dismiss this out of hand. But in my view of the world, it explains why some people do some things that are so reckless that it is beyond the imagination of others. It explains the motivation of many "sex workers" as well.

Condoms are very cheap insurance. Its a given that every curious teenage smart enough to use the Internet knows what a condom is and what it is for. The question is why don't they?

Jim Carroll, no doubt, religion is part of the debate. For one thing, youthful rebellion is a stereotype, and therefor known to be common, among some religions. Hopefully we can all keep the religious aspect in perspective and not have it be the only perspective.