It is the epidemic that now rages across the adolescent world. High school students retreat into dark corners, classrooms and vehicles to act on rampant hormones. Preteens lock lips as if they are leaving for war. Hollywood films, romantic novels, popular songs, and Internet websites glamorize it. According to Wikipedia, In human sexuality, making out…is used synonymously with the terms petting, kissing and necking, but may also refer to non-penetrative sex acts such as heavy petting. Depending on the culture it usually does not mean that the kisser loves the person he or she kissed. The media, however, has distorted the meaning, causing it to appear that if two people kiss, it clearly indicates that they love each other.
While kissing can offer some health benefits such as boosting oxytocin levels and reducing tooth decay, it also conveys harmful viruses and bacteria. Dentists say that around five hundred different types of diseases—including colds, mononucleosis, and herpes—can be transmitted from just one kiss. French kissing can also transfer AIDS/HIV if at least one of the partners has an open wound in his or her mouth.
Likewise, kissing is a catalyst for jealousy and heartbreak. Primarily, girls seek the emotional commitment they think will come from making out, while all the boys want is the corporeal thrill of the experience. One boy accepted a challenge to earn a fifteen-dollar hamburger meal if he French kissed three different girls in one night. He followed through with the challenge and won the prize, but smashed the girls’ hearts in the process. He had stolen something precious and turned it into a personal tool without even a backward glance at the people he was hurting.
On one occasion in school a heated debate occurred over passionate kissing. A teacher argued that making out should only be reserved for marriage due to the feelings that it kindled. A teenage boy countered with, “When I’m making out with my girlfriend, I’m in complete control and we both know when to stop.” Then another boy raised his hand and said, “I’d like to comment.” This second student had gained a reputation from being involved in serious alcoholism in the past, so the teacher was somewhat wary when he permitted him to speak. The boy said, “The moment you start French kissing, that’s when you lose control.” No matter how innocent and fun making out may seem, it arouses dangerous thoughts and sensations. Many people, especially adolescent males—but not excluding females—are not satisfied with just kissing; they want more. Passionate kissing is a spur toward pornography addiction, which deadens the addicts’ ability to feel true love, changes their behavior and perception, and leads them down roads to becoming pedophiles and rapists.
A significant number of teenagers and young adults believe that to give someone access to his or her lips and body is to express love—this is another case of misunderstanding in terms of kissing. The dictionary’s definition of making out: to kiss and caress somebody as an expression of sexual desire. Making out is only a way to show a person that you are attracted to his or her body, not his or her personality or intelligence. The profoundest love stories do not center on how long or how fervently the partners kiss. Making out does not demonstrate the kindness, concern, support, and sensitivity that are the vital elements of a loving bond. Like one poet once wrote, “Kisses aren’t contracts.”
Making out has its particular place in life—a place that is wholesome and satisfying. But that place is not in relationships based on physical desire. Because of its detriments to the physical, emotional, mental, and romantic well-being of teenagers, kissing for mere sport or pleasure is far more destructive than many people comprehend.