Sex is a many-faceted thing. It has its utilitarian aspect—procreation—but it is also enjoyable and important for ego, bonding, social interaction, and health.
 
From a biological perspective, we can be thought of as little more than disposable packages of immortal genes: we carry the genes of our parents, we die, and our genes continue on through our children. We are in the grip of powers serving ends beyond our own.
 
In the beginning, prior to civilization, a few people in the wild with the urge in their loins to go forth and fill the Earth could have at it with little consequence. Life could be a concupiscent breeding frenzy. But with billions of people on one finite planet, thinking must now intercede. Although popular culture would have everyone believe they should have at it with gusto, sex has serious ramifications.
 
Most importantly, since sex can create a helpless child, there is implicit responsibility. Those partaking should be fully prepared for the potential consequences linked to this very adult act. Teens and young adults unprepared for marriage, commitment, and financial responsibility are not ready for children and therefore, by inference, not ready for sex. This is in spite of the devil-may-care attitude evident in teen magazines, movies, and television. Child pregnancies, ruined lives, disease, abortions, and unwanted and abandoned children now plague our world because sex is promoted as innocent recreation. The ability to do something and the fun of doing so does not make the right. Survival of our species depends on reining in impetuous biological desires and acting with conscience and a sense of responsibility to the rest of society.
 
In our ancient past, procreating at a young age was vital since people were not expected to live long. Children needed to be weaned and reared before the parents died. Modern society and long life make no such early procreation demands, but sexual capability at a young age remains and the fervor to 'do it' is the most intense during youth. The sexual constraints necessary in modern society must overcome our hormone-driven biology better fitted for the 'club-em–and-drag-em-by-the-hair' days.

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The problem is that sex is too much fun. That's not by accident. If it were a chore, the species would have died out long ago. On the other hand, if sexual fun becomes a preoccupation, the rest of life suffers. Society's constant titillations and abundant leisure creating time and energy for more focus on sex makes it challenging to keep things in perspective.
 
This modern circumstance is in sharp contrast to life in primitive societies where day-to-day survival, not sex, was the number one priority. In a PBS documentary that examined a hunter-gatherer society, I was struck by the premarital instructions to the new wife by the new husband and relatives: "Feed the pigs regularly and be happy about it; pull the weeds in the garden; carry the water; don't try to find another husband; share your food and don't hide it; gather the tubers from the garden and cook them well; don't complain; weave and repair the nets and baskets; feed the baby when it cries." Not a word about sex.
 
The emotional and psychological entanglement created by a sexual relationship is complex. It's not just an orgasm thing. People who attempt to treat sex as casual miss an important point—sex is the ultimate intimacy. To treat it otherwise makes it no more fulfilling than a cough, sneeze, or bathroom visit. Sex is a means to connect to another person, and connection is critical to a happy and fulfilling life.
 
Security, self-worth, and esteem are also intimately linked to sex. A fulfilling sex life creates socio-psycho-ego equilibrium. An unhappy one can cause frustration, depression, and a loss of a sense of worth. When libido ebbs or sexual dysfunction occurs in later years, many people feel that life has pretty much ended. This is the primary reason Viagra is the most successful pharmacological agent ever invented and why advertising it and its brand name offspring flood the media.
 
The sexual act is a reflection, a metaphor of what a long-standing relationship can mean—each partner fulfilling the needs of the other to bring pleasure to both. Sexual intimacy for a few moments can relieve the fundamental loneliness of being human and bring an altered state of consciousness, transcendence, and unity.
 
The psychological and social complexity related to sex is yet another reason it is inappropriate for children. Regardless of age, sex bonds and creates feelings of obligation and rights. In a child's world where independence has not been achieved, rights and obligations with regard to those outside the family don't fit. Similarly, kids may be able to have and enjoy money, but they are hardly capable of earning it, investing, handling an IRS audit or the potential consequences of a fiscal disaster they could create. At a time in life when learning and exploration should be preparing a young mind to meet the challenges of adulthood, the interjection of sex is like a detour and dead end that offers no upside. Instead it preoccupies young minds and emotions with obligations, jealousies, and bodies. Sex is serious business and kids are not ready for serious business.
 
One last point: Sex is healthy. Studies show that disease resistance is increased and longevity extended in a fulfilling adult sexual relationship. This is likely due to two reasons. One is that feeling loved brings a sense of well being that actually boosts the immune system. The second, getting back to the biological aspect, is that the body senses an end to one of its important purposes for existence if reproductive acts do not take place. That sends the message to the body that life is no longer important, so it slips into a weakened and vulnerable state.

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So there you have my birds and bees talk. The long and short is that we should not partake if we are not fully capable of shouldering the potential responsibilities. When we are ready, we should have fun but not get too preoccupied with it. Shared with someone with whom there is mutual commitment, sex is healthy, life extending, psychologically fulfilling, gives us a sense of connection, and permits us to experience an important aspect of love, life's ultimate high.