Parents should get over the 'cringe factor' and talk to their teenagers about sex and relationships, a psychotherapist has said.
Stella O'Malley says it's not responsible for parents to be leaving such conversations to the schools.
She was speaking after a new survey from the ESRI and the HSE found that four in ten 17 year olds have not spoken to their parents about sex and relationships.
It also found that young people who discussed sex with their parents at age 13 were significantly more likely to have used contraception when they first had sex.
The findings also show that a third of 17 year olds have had sex, with almost 90% using contraception.
However, nearly a quarter of young people expressed regret over the timing of first sex - including 31% of young women.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Ms O'Malley says it seems to her that parents are leaving the conversations about sex and relationships to the schools.
She said: "Lots of little talks is what you need to be doing - so you're not just talking with the 'sex talk', but relationships, consent... making sure your children understand to send inappropriate texts... and if they receive them that they delete and block.
"Looking at the stats, [parents] have one talk when they're 11 or 12 and then say 'goodbye, good luck'... nothing that would be really helpful".
She said the 'cringe factor' goes both ways when it comes to these conversations - with teenagers not wanting to hear it, and parents 'mortified' to talk about it.
However, she said: "We kind of have to get over that, because it's too important.
"A third of girls are unhappy with their first experience of sex... I think that's really sad. That's just a horrible statistic."
Findings
The author of the ESRI report, Dr Anne Nolan, told Breakfast Briefing that things have improved in recent years, as figures from past studies were 'much worse'.
However, she said there is still cause for concern - particularly that 40% of 17-year-olds hadn't spoken to their parents about sex and relationships.
She explained: “What we found that young people that had discussed sex with their parents were much more likely to use contraception when they first had sex.
"There was a protective effect of having those conversations."
She pointed out that the survey also showed that over 20% of young people are sourcing their information about sex and relationships from the internet, TV, films and books.
She noted: "One suspicion we would have is that pornography is being used here.
"We didn’t ask about pornography at the age of 17... we did at the age of 20, and there is quite a high use of pornography... particularly among young men.
“That does raise concerns about the type of information they’re getting, and obviously the expectations they have then about sex and relationships."
The study found that young people who had poor-quality relationships with their peers were much more likely to rely on the internet/TV/films/books for information about sex and relationships.
