Whining noise

Could you make a video of it and upload it so we can hear it? Noises can be any number of things. Do you notice it change if you turn the steering wheel? You say it lessens when slowing down or stopping? Does it show up if you just step on the gas setting still or doe you have to be moving? Any change if you step on the brakes while the whine is audible?

No apology needed, I use a twelve year old flip myself. As for the noise, based on the description and having heard more than a few I would say it is most likely the power steering pump. It is in those whiny teen age years. There are two possibilities, one the fluid likely has never been changed so changing it may help, or more likely is that the pump is just worn and noisy.
Another possibility is a bad bearing in one of the accessory items like the alternator or one of the idler pulleys in the belt drive system.
The first thing I would do is to check the power steering level. Low fluid will make a lot of noise. Next would be to use a suction device (a turkey baster works good) and draw out as much of the old fluid as possible and replace it with new. Just be sure to use the proper new fluid which would be Mercon V transmission fluid.

That would depend entirely on what the problem is. I would probably get it looked at ASAP. A bad tension-er pulley could lock up and snap the drive belt. The power steering pump could run for years making noise or it could lock up and cause the same thing. That would stop the water pump, power steering and alternator and cause you to lose those items, if you only drive on low traffic roads and can pull off easily then maybe, but if you are in the middle of five lanes of traffic at seventy mph, it is not something I would want to try my luck at.

Plus, it is possible that it is not either of those and it is something inside the engine and repairing it now would be okay but waiting may damage it beyond repair. Without hearing it noises can be very hard to track down without a few tests. One of the major drawbacks of internet based diagnostics.

If they had to listen that close my bet is the pump has a sticky valve in it. When I think "bad pump" based on noise, it is usually loud enough that you can hear it thirty feet or so away.

A fluid change might just free it up. You can do that with a turkey baster and new fluid, might take twenty minutes. Draw out as much as you can. Add new fluid, start the car and turn the steering back/forth a few times. Shut it off and draw out as much as you can again and top it off. You will not get all of the old fluid out but you will get much of it. Tour option on that but I have seen a fluid change quiet a pump.

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