I understand the need for privacy, but my need to have healthy, safe children trumps their privacy needs. In my opinion, the cut off age is 18. I am no longer legally responsible for their actions at 18. I have only felt the need to invade one of the kids' privacy once. I thought my daughter (in college) was depressed and I opened a My Space and Facebook account to see what she was posting (I know, she was over 18 but it was the world wide web, no expectation of privacy imo). Frankly I wouldn't be able to figure out any of their phones.

Now to the topic of the thread. I have kids aged 22, 20, 16, &16. It has been my experience that these kids talk about sex ALL THE TIME. Just because they're talking about it, doesn't necessarily mean they're doing it. Polite conversation has taken a strange turn these days.

The only thing you can do is keep the lines of communication open with YOUR son. I've always been very open with my kids, starting from when they were small so that it wouldn't be as uncomfortable.