Since writing our original article, we've heard from hundreds of folks. The adults who've written almost always say their kids are never going to wear those bracelets again. On the other hand, almost without exception, the middle- and high-school kids from all across the US. express shock that the adults would think they were actually obeying this "code" and disappointment in their elders for failing to understand the bracelets are no more than a cool fashion accessory that has attracted a silly rumor. Yes, many kids had heard the rumor before the media threw it at them (and many hadn't), but even to those exposed to this snippet of lore in the wild (i.e., those that heard it from their friends as an item of schoolyard lore rather than gleaned it from the headlines of the day), this was nothing more than a giddy "everybody knows" fact, right up there with "Bubble Yum contains spider eggs."
We would happily shift this from the "Undetermined" category squarely into the "False" column save for a small handful of e-mails from youngsters who claim the rumor is on the up-and-up and that they know someone who did it. Quite possibly, those notes amount to nothing more than "I heard the story from someone I trust, so I want to believe it," but we feel we can't dismiss them out of hand. If, however, there have been some actual instances of sex obligated by bracelet-snap, they have been rare.
Moreover, the mechanics of the activity might well rule it out. As numerous of our correspondents have explained, it would take a mighty force to break a jelly bracelet those circlets are tough.
The greatest concern over "sex bracelets" is not that anyone is going to engage in any real redeeming, but that children far too young to be entertaining such thoughts are being exposed to them. One way the pull tab and beer label beliefs differ from the "sex bracelets" code is the age of the participants; the rumor of thirty years ago was circulated mainly in high schools, but today's version is moving through grade and middle schools.
