I DON'T think anybody was surprised to read about the findings of the survey that revealed that 64 per cent of National University of Singapore (NUS) students have sex at least once a week.

Frankly I was surprised the figure wasn't any higher.

And I was surprised that the media has been treating this piece of survey like it's sensational news because everyone knows that all this testosterone-driven hanky-panky has been going on for many years at the hostels.

I mean, seriously! What do you think goes on when you put a whole bunch of strong, virile, young people together under the same roof? Prayer sessions? Studying? Let's not kid ourselves. We all remember being 20, curious and bored, don't we? Who am I to come down hard on the students? So what if they sometimes resort to making out in the bathrooms?

In fact, I have fond memories of making out in weird places when I was much younger, although I never did in
toilets.

Let's see, there's the basement stairwell at Pacific Plaza, a certain 'hidden' bench at Kent Ridge Park, in a parked car at Mount Faber...

Okay I must add that my 'making out' wasn't actual sex.

It's just making out.

This brings me to the point that, yes, young people these days are certainly more daring, gung-ho and liberal - and just keep getting more and more so.

But it isn't their fault. Blame it on the media.

They're just victims of all the glorified nonsense that the media throws at us.

Of course, I'm not going to pretend that these students are all angels. A few of them are just plain tarts, sleeping their way through the student and teacher population - and the rest of the population outside the school.

I personally know of a few like that. In fact, I know of a certain famous person who once boasted that back when she was in NUS, she once slept with a lecturer just to get good grades.

This certain person was a student there more than a decade ago (See? It's been going on for years.)

I know of a male friend of mine who's in his mid-30s who was invited a couple of years ago by a young nubile NUS hottie to her hostel room. He naturally did not turn the invite down.

Oh, I've got more scandalous stories my dears but I don't really want to cause a heart attack in conservatives reading this.

For the sake of them conservatives, let's come up with ways to stop the incorrigible behaviour.

Get NUS to ban sex in hostels. Infiltrate the campus with a huge, cheesy abstinence campaign. Impose strict curfews. Hire chaperones to prowl the corridors at all times. Install CCTVs in all campus toilets.

Erm... any other ideas? Because really, nothing can be done to stop two consenting adults from copulating.
It's in our basic nature to be drawn to each other sexually. If a person has great discipline or a calling to be celibate that stems from a faith, good for him or her.

But if they don't, you can't forbid them to have sex. It's their business and right in this free country of ours.

However, what needs to be done is educating them on safe sex and instilling a social and academic responsibility in their conscience, as in there are dire consequences of irresponsible sex. I can name a few: Unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, bad grades and broken hearts.

Jamie Yeo is a sportcaster with Star World and a Star Blogger with Stomp, the social networking and citizen media
website of The Straits Times. This column first appeared in Stomp.