Sundowner, when you were that age, girls matured considerably later. Today's 14 year old looks like 16yo to 18yo looked in your days. Today puberty starts at 12 for girls in the USA. That means that there are many girls starting at 10 and 11. If not masturbation, the other option for young girls is to engage in sex when they have their hormonal surges and as a means of self discovery - something that is totally unacceptable and against the law.
Today's youth also grow up with much more information on sex and their bodies than you did. It is thus only natural that experimentation will start earlier.
Despite all this, it is really amazing how much misinformation, fear and guilt are still around. It is as if the sex education is still stuck in the middle of the last century and are leading to terrible outcomes amongst the teens of today.