Summer Is Hot Season for Teen Sex

June 19 -- Fifteen-year-olds Victoria Richardson and Ben Ochrym are in love, and they're the closest of pals, too.

"He is like really my best friend," Victoria said. "He was always there for me, and he really listens well and I really respect that about him."

The high school couple will be spending the summer together, traveling in Europe on a teen tour. But the plan caught her dad off guard.

"I was under the impression, somehow mistaken, that it was all girls," Gene Richardson said. "And at some point it became clear that it was not all girls. And I just kind of flipped."

When Victoria is far away from her Rochester, N.Y., home, her parents worry, how far will she go?

"I want them to feel comfortable with their own sexuality, with how things will progress, but I guess I'm not ready for her to be really involved with that," said her mother, Sandi Richardson. "So … that's a struggle."

Forget the Fairy Tales

If Gene Richardson had his way, his daughter would wait — and wait a good long while — before she had sex.

"I guess the fairy tale would be until she was married," he said.

Fairy tales rarely come true. According to a survey of 30,000 teens released last month by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 20 percent of teens lose their virginity before their 15th birthday. More teens lose their virginity during the summer months than at any other time of the year, according to research in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. By the time teens graduate high school, two-thirds have had intercourse, and when they walk down the aisle, a mere 15 percent will still be virgins.

Victoria Richardson says that peer pressure to have sex exists, but she has a mind of her own.

"I feel that pressure a lot with my friends," she said. "But I don't let that get in the way because I want to be ready and feel good about it."

Why Kids Have Sex

In fact, peer pressure is only one of the reasons that teens have sex, said pediatrician Dr. Mark Schuster, co-author of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask.