Our kids are between 10 and 24, and several inbetween (so the "most" thingy didn't fit us.) We have always been open about sexuality, while still maintaining our OWN privacy and our children's privacy.
There is no "Talk" in our house, it is a running dialogue, based on questions that may come up, things they may see on television, books lying around Our Bodies Ourselves and What Is Happening To My Body are usually on our coffee table for questions or just curiosity. (But, we keep the erotica and the porn in private, IMO, neither of these is appropriate for young adolescents, and I really don't share MY OWN sexual activities with my children, as they don't share the details of their own.) I think a family can be open with sexuality, while still maintaining privacy.
We reinforced how important birth control and disease control with our kids, and even have provided it, when the older ones are low on cash. I think an open ongoing dialogue is a little harder than "The Talk" but it matures as the child does, and eventually everything they WANT to ask you about comes up. Sometimes, we may bring something up that our kids DON'T want to talk about, the other day, I casually asked one of my older dd's if she shaved her pubes, as her older sister and I were just talking about it earlier and she said, "I decline to answer Mom. Sorry, it's personal." No problem. Their privacy is all important.
It can be amusing, though. Our oldest dd is moved out and living with her fiancee. We finally, after more than a year, told her she HAD to clean out her room so we could use it for something else, and she did....kind of. When My Man and I went in there to finish the job, we found several condom wrappers and used up BC pill blister packages. I told her while laughing and at first she was a bit appalled, "OMG, did Daddy see them?" I told her yes, and he was proud, that even when she was younger and still living with us she had the common sense to use TWO forms of birth control and protect herself against STIs. She was then glad when I told her we were proud of her responsible attitude, although we did get a chuckle out of the condom wrappers, "Here's an other one. Oh, it's glow in the dark. I don't think we've ever used one of those."
Being open, while respecting boundaries for both you and your kids is the best thing, as far as we understand raising children.
