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The United Kingdom now has the worst rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe. The Government are even compiling teenage pregnancy rates across the catchment areas of secondary schools. They think that this will put schools in the front line of the battle against under age pregnancy. Somehow I think not, compiling a schools sex league table could lead to schools being pressurised to hand out the morning after pill to bring their figures down.
As far as I’m concerned this is not the way to deal with this issue. I think children are being told about sex way before they need to know. All you have to do is read “Sex Education at swimming pool” on this site to see this is true. In that case a mother was telling her 3 year old in great detail about sex. The more kids know at a young age the younger they will be when they experiment and they wont even think about taking precautions, they just think, they’ve told us what to do, now lets go try it out.
I appreciate that peer pressure has a lot to do with kids having sex. All the kids at school are full of it, what they did and how they did it etc, most of them probably haven’t and are only saving face, but there are kids out there who believe what they are told and are made to feel odd because they haven’t had sex. This then encourages these kids to go out and experiment. Unfortunately those old myths and wives tales always seem to come to the fore, for example, you can’t get pregnant the first time or having sex standing up is a contraceptive. Some kids believe these stupid tales and fall foul by not taking precautions and ending up pregnant.
Nowadays kids think it’s all too simple, if they do get pregnant they just have to get the morning after pill. It is all too easy for young kids to have access to contraception. At our local Health Centre anyone can go along and get condoms, no questions asked. Now that is all fine and well but no questions asked means just that, they don’t even ask your age. Kids as young as 12 have been issued with condoms but the parents of these kids know nothing about it and are unaware that their kids are sexually active. Even if your child goes to your GP for contraception, you will not be informed.
We all understand about patient confidentiality, but when your child goes to the doctor saying they think they are pregnant and they are under the age of consent, I think the doctor should be made to inform the parents. In reality though the GP will arrange a pregnancy test and if the child is lucky and its negative, the GP will then arrange for the child to be issued with some form of contraception. You will never know unless your child tells you. Oh I can hear some of you out there saying my daughter and I have a great relationship she can tell me anything….. Think again!
This is one time when, no matter how good your relationship is, they wont tell you. If your daughter is sexually active, and she has a pregnancy scare and she goes to her GP they will do a test if it is negative your daughter will be given an appointment with the doctor to be prescribed the contraceptive pill. In my experience no one explains the side effects that taking this pill will have on the child. If your child does confide in you and you go to see the doctor you will be told that it is nothing to do with you. You have no say as to whether your child is given the pill or not.
Once kids are prescribed the pill they think they are safe, but not only can they still fall pregnant whilst on the pill, but they can contract all sorts of STIs. We need to teach our kids that the best form of contraception is to say NO. Teaching kids at an early age about sex is only going to lead to kids experimenting at a younger age hence more teenage pregnancies.
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More should be done
Written by Mini Moo on 2006-01-16 14:14:37
I do agree with some of your points here - I mean, children getting pregnant at such a young age is definately an issue for paren'ts to be involved with. However - I come from Salford, a city that has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Britain. Having attended school there and consequently having experienced their sex education program, I know first hand how inadequate this 'education' is. We were taught about male and female reproductive organs. Full stop. Oh, I think we had a class about STI's briefly, but nothing that would actually concern us.
Children who have no idea about sex and the consequences, walk into blindly. If children aren't informed about what can happen as a result of 'experimenting' with sex, then what else can they do but find out for themselves?
Fair enough, young children can do without knowing the ins and outs of such a topic, but by the age of high school level, all children should be aware of all there is to know - and that includes the effects of any form of contraception, be it pre or post intercourse.
Especially in the poorer areas of the country, I feel that the miseducation and ignorance surrounding this topic, by all involved (parents, schools and young people themselves) should be a major area to improve.
Parents should lead the way in this matter, telling their children of the 'birds and the bees' but I also feel it is a major factor in education as well, to learn the more factual based things like STI's and contraception.
More should be done because the more children who are bringing up children in this world will of course bring less education on sex, as parents won't have a clue due to them being 12 yrs old and had a baby by 'experimenting' to find out what it is she shouldn't be doing - just because she was told not to. Children need valid justifications of why they shouldn't do things, so just telling them not to will only encourage them to do it!
| Time spent on important things is hard!
Written by Yahoo on 2006-02-09 21:40:28
There is less education everywere on what STDs and the such and more and more about having sex on TV. Big Brother and all these shows are nothing about keeping it safe and that is just plain bad.
Then schools are doing less time for kids about the dark side of sex. The thing is, even parents can talk about sex but do they talk in the right way about STD and other things?
| Quidnunc
Written by Guest on 2006-05-14 11:11:55
I disagree with the idea that teaching sex at an early age is wrong but it does depend on the definition of early age. These days children are being exposed to sex ever earlier, especially in the lyrics of pop-music (not to mention the suggestive antics pop stars get up to on-screen). Take this sort of trash off TV, and bringing back at least a modicum of censorship would go a long way to reversing the trend you complain of.
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