WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA9)-- If your kids are just sitting there with a blank look on their face during 'the birds and the bees talk,' parents don't worry. Teenagers are actually listening and soaking up the safe-sex message.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday at the XIX International AIDS Conference that more teenagers are using condoms than 20 years ago.
Government researchers report that about 60 percent of sexually active high school students say they practiced safe sex the last time they had sex.
That percentage is an improvement from the 46 percent who were using condoms in 1991. But there's a lot of work still needed to protect young people from the AIDS virus, according to the researchers.
The CDC reports that four of every 10 new HIV infections occur in people younger than 30.
Parents should tell their kids about HIV in the teen years because that's when children become sexually active, the CDC said.
The average age when teens begin having sex is 16-years-old, according to the CDC.
And they're not just having sex with one person. Fifteen percent of high schoolers say they've had four or more sexual partners and that's down from 19 percent in 1991.