PiquePlace:

I'm not saying keep kids in the dark, I'm not saying kids won't be experimenting with these types of things anyway,

As a parent of now-adult kids, I'd much rather my teen had come to me to ask about a vibrator than, for instance, come to me about needing birth control or wondering about an infection because she borrowed her friend's vibrator which wasn't clean.

I don't think masturbation is either something you "keep from" your parents OR something most people need to discuss with them. But it is a natural part of life, and her mother has always been there for her before. If she said nothing to her mother, she might find it harder to talk to Mom next time there's some important issue, because she'd be thinking in the back of her mind about this "secret".

By the way, lots of 16 year old "children" have toddlers. In less developed nations, they are already supporting families, with or without their husbands. She's only a child based on our society's protracted adoloescence. My mother was married and pregnant at 17. What the world has "come to" since then is plenty of 25-30 year olds still trying to decide what they want to do when they grow up, and still trying to live off of mom and/or dad. I hope there's a happy medium someplace.