DR. WALLACE: I'm 16 and so is my boyfriend. We have been dating for more than a year and only recently have become sexually active. We are both intelligent teens who are in love. When we have sex, he uses protection — 100 percent of the time.

My parents are very protective. They were both born in Japan and do not believe in premarital sex for teens. I keep a diary, and every time my boyfriend and I have sex, I list it in the diary along with certain notes about our encounter. I keep the diary hidden under my mattress.

Last night I was reading my diary to find out how many times we had sex together (27 times) and after counting, I started reading about the interesting details of each "love-making" adventure and somehow I fell asleep before I could hide my diary.

You guessed it; my mother came into my bedroom to wake me for school and found my personal diary. Most moms would have left the diary alone, but not my mom. She took it and read all the juicy details and then started screaming at me that she was going to have Gary arrested for statutory rape. I told her that he was too young and couldn't be arrested.

Can you imagine how many guys would be in jail if age 16 was considered to be legal age rather than age 18? Then my mother said I can no longer go out with Gary (I'll handle that later) and that I'm grounded until after I graduate from high school. (This threat will not become a reality either.)

I doubt seriously that a 16-year-old guy could be guilty of statutory rape of a consenting young lady aged 16. Are my doubts fact? —Nameless, Oceanside, Calif.

NAMELESS: Your mother can demand that you stop seeing Gary, and she can keep you grounded until you turn 18, but she cannot press charges against Gary for statutory rape. Gary is not considered an adult. The law states that a person must have reached the age of 18 to be legally an adult — that is, for everything except buying alcohol, for which he or she must be 21.

As to the wisdom of your behavior, I'll give you a 1 out of 2. Using protection during sex was smart. Having sex 27 times and then noting interesting details of these adventures in a diary wasn't. You are making a serious mistake equating sex with love, and if you believe that sex will make a teen relationship stronger, you are misinformed. Teen sex causes more serious physical and emotional trauma than it creates lasting happiness. I have thousands of responses to prove it.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.