Masturbation is often called 'wanking' and means using your or your partner's hand to rub your sexual parts to give pleasure.
Men rub their penis, which can lead to an erection, and sometimes they have an orgasm. Boys can start to masturbate at any age, although it can't lead to ejaculation until puberty has taken place.
Women usually rub around or on their clitoris and sometimes put their fingers in and out of their vagina. If a woman masturbates to orgasm they will feel the muscles in their vagina spasm and feelings of pleasure will flow through their whole body.
Lots of people fantasise while masturbating, this can be thinking about someone they have a crush on while others use top-shelf magazines, or sexy videos. Some people use pornography (pictures and videos of nudity and people having sex) to make themselves aroused and masturbate while other people find pornography offensive.
Some people enjoy masturbating alone while others do so with their partner. Often people continue to masturbate even if they have a regular sexual partner. It is important to realise sex and masturbation are two completely different things. During times when people are not in a relationship they still experience normal sex drives and the most obvious form of sexual relief and satisfaction available at those times will be masturbation.
Masturbation is harmless, no matter how often you do it as long as it is done in private or with a consenting partner. It's not unusual for people to masturbate several times a day, some people don't like to masturbate at all or believe it is against their religion or culture, everyone is different.
Masturbation allows you to get to know your body better, what you like and what you don't. Masturbation can be pleasant, fulfilling, acceptable, normal and safe. In fact, masturbation is the safest form of sex there is as you cannot catch a sexually transmitted infection or get pregnant by doing it.
