This 30-second spot that premiered during last week's Gossip Girl has been drawing national attention:

The commercial comes from the Candie's Foundation, an organization whose stated goal is to prevent teen pregnancy. It not-so-gently reminds kids about the risks they take if they choose to have sex. I think this is an important message to get across to today's adolescents, especially in a society where sex stuffs our magazines, our TV shows and our computers. I mean, if you're going to do it, you should be in love, or it should be with someone you trust, or you should be in college or something. And regardless of when you start having sex, you must, must, must use protection.

The foundation gets its information from StayTeen.org, a hip, nonpartisan website that teaches the practice of abstinence as well as the use of contraception. And while the Candie's Foundation claims to be fairly nonpartisan on the issue, too, the content on its site makes me suspicious. There is just one, single reference to condoms, and then only in its "Tips for Teens" section, which mentions that 31% of teens don't use a condom their first time. Here's a "tip" for you: 100% of statistics are not tips.

This is precisely why these kinds of campaigns fail. They focus too much on chastity and not enough on healthy behaviors of the sexually active.

The inefficiency of an abstinence-only education has been proven again and again and again. Studies have indicated that communities where abstinence is preached have higher rates of STDs and teen pregnancy and teenaged mothers. A 2001 estimate showed that 2.5 million teenagers pledged celibacy until marriage, but over half broke their promise—and usually with someone other than their future spouses.

But what concerns me here is a matter of authenticity. Does this organization really care about preventing teen pregnancy when statistics show that its approach is actually detrimental to that cause? Furthermore, anyone vaguely knowledgeable about sex knows that the act doesn't automatically lead to pregnancy. By not acknowledging this in the commercial, the Candie's Foundation isn't giving us "the facts," and it won't be credible until it does. I believe that adults everywhere, regardless of their religious beliefs or political leanings or even opinions about premarital sex, have a moral obligation to teach the youth about first the consequences of engaging in such behavior and also the safest practices for doing so. And I'm not alone.

Do I think 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds should be bumping nasties? No. Hell no. But our country's parents and educators need to realize that, like abstinence, abstinence-only education isn't the only option. Teaching safer sex, well, that's just extra protection.