- Purity rings---which come is a variety of designs---indicate a person's intent to stay celibate until marriage. Many parents, especially those who are religious, buy purity rings for their teenagers and ask them to abstain from sex. Often parents give purity rings in conjunction with purity balls, where daughters accompany their fathers to a ball as a sign that they promise not to have premarital sex. The person wears the ring until her wedding day. At that time, she gives the purity ring to the new spouse as a symbol of the couple's pure love.
- Though many religious groups have long advocated for abstinence, purity rings are a tangible, outward symbol of the pledge. Purity rings began to gain popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The rings became trendy in part because of the media's depiction of the risks of sex, such as the rise of both sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy. Christian groups aimed to start an abstinence movement and began encouraging their teenagers to wear purity rings.
- Though purity rings were all the rage with religious teens since the late 1990s, they gained mainstream appeal in the late 2000s when celebrities revealed that they wore such rings. Many teen stars, including the Jonas Brothers and Jordin Sparks, wore purity rings as a very public pledge to remain celibate. In 2008, purity rings even made front page celebrity news when Russell Brand criticized the Jonas Brothers for wearing the rings. Other celebrities and abstinence-advocating groups publicly came to the defense of the Jonas Brothers.
- Before the Jonas Brothers brought secular prominence to purity rings, religious groups worked tirelessly to ensure that their children would not succumb to the pressures to have premarital sex. Religious organizations, such as Generations of Virtue, have worked for years to convince teens to wear purity rings out of their devotion to God. These groups believe that purity rings represent a commitment to God in the same way that a wedding band represents commitment to a spouse. Generations of Virtue and other religious groups also sell purity rings on their websites.
- To many parents' dismay, purity rings may not have the desired effect, though. According to a 2005 Journal of Adolescent Health report, the majority of teens who pledge to remain virgins actually do have sex before marriage. The report states that 20 percent of teens pledge celibacy. Even among teens who consistently pledged to remain virgins, 61 percent ended up having sex before marriage. The incidence of STDs was only marginally higher in teens who had not taken the pledge versus those who did. It appears that while purity rings appeal to parents and represent an ideal among some teens, they do not greatly affect how teens actually behave.
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