oh dear oh dear

[secretly_shy]

The amount of girls getting pregnant who are not even 16 has risen in the UK, despite a step up in sex education and an extra £40k being invested...

...maybe by teaching these kids about sex they want to go and test it out? how will we reduce these numbers!

[girl12]

Damn. That really sucks. Do they have proper sex education there?

It is happening in the US also because they are having these STUPID abstinence only sex ed programs. And all they talk about is how much contraception doesn't work.

-Mariah

[secretly_shy]

by law every school has to give sex education, but it varies from school to school.... i imagine its simular in the states.

I think kids are learning about it and thinking "ok, lets be the first to grow up and be the first to have sex"

i personally think my school had a fantastic sex ed, as they taught us loads and THEN taught us how to please a member of the opposite sex without having to remove our undies thats safe sex promotion!

[girl12]

Well unfortunately since our IDIOT president has control of things right now, there is an "abstinence only" program and it PISSES ME OFF.

Your sex ed sounds like an awesome program! haha I wanna move there!

-Mariah

[Tessie]

You know my 13 year old daughter just had sex ed last week. And was taught more then abstinance only so I don't know where you are getting that it's the only thing taught. It was part of it of as it should be. Afterall if teen age girls stopped having sex they wouldn't get pregnant. Are you saying that shouldn't be taught?

I will also bet you that once President Bush is out of office and a new sex ed program is put into effect things won't change. I am 39 years old and I have heard about the rise of teenage pregnancy for as long as I can remember.

Kids have sex. That is a fact. Anything but abstinence is asking for trouble.

[thetease13]

This is what I was taught in school.
Boy + girl = baby or STD.
Use condom.
No condom = no sex.
The end.

And yet, they managed to string that out over weeks by having a "guest speaker" like once a week. And now that I think about it, STDs was preached much more than pregnancy as I don't recall any parent that got pregnant as a teen talking to us... but yet I can recall at least three AIDS people.

So yes, I was taught more than abstinance only, however, that was still the most thing preached. I actually learned more in science class than I ever did in health classes that "taught" you about sex. I then learned a lot more on the internet cause well, if no one else was going to teach me anything, I was going to teach myself.
But it all varies from school to school. Your daughter may have been taught more... however at girl12s school, they may only preach abstinance only. It depends on your district. It depends on how well funded your school is. It depends on what area of the district you live in. And the factors just goes on and on.

But anyways...
No matter what you do or say, kids/teens will go out and do it. I do however think, and know for the most part, that the more you tell a teen not to do something, the more likely they are to do something. I don't think you need to fork over billions of dollars to fund a program that's not going to do much.
If people want to do it, they will. If they want to hold off, they will.

Teen pregnancy has been around since the dark ages. Teens were always having sex left and right and getting pregnant left and right. It's just everything was kept more quiet about it back then. These days everyone just wants to shove everything in your face like it's some new epidemic when it's really been around forever.

[secretly_shy]

The UK has the highest teen pregnancy rate in europe (and considering we're quite small thats quite scary!) but the numbers just seem to keep rising

I think the child's background and parental attitudes play a part- there was a story in a magazine of a 14 & 15year old set of sisters who "raced each other to get pregnant" for the fact they were "bored" and thought "a baby will give us something to do"! The family thought this was acceptable, there is not a chance my parents would have encouraged that at that age!

I recently saw a girl i went to school with in town, dragging a small child behind her. I havent seen her since i was 16 (Im 20 now) but heard on the grapevine she deliberatly got pregnant as all her friends had kids and she felt left out!

is there an answer to this problem? i doubt it; but if these statistics keep rising it can only mean trouble.

[Brandye]

As a physician in the UK, this is embarassing. The US is improving in teen pregnancy, Europe is staying the same and we are slipping. Holland, incidentally, is the best in the world. Interesting aside is that the incidence of teen sex in all these countries is the same.

In the UK, there are many immigrants among whom the teen pregnancy rate is out of sight. Sometimes because it is expected that women will be married by 14 and mothers by 16. While this does not explain the entire rise, the school dropout rate (another embarassment) and simple carelessness takes care of the rest. 90% of teens are unprotected the first time in UK. Frightening.

[bellybuttonlint]

I'm sexually active.. and I'm 15. I went down to the local Planned Parenthood Center and put myself on birthcontrol pills. I know its not 199% safe, but I think that maybe more girls would if they knew it as free, and that they had be quite about it. After getting on the pill, I went to school and promoted it.. Maybe schools should think about having an advertising thing with local Planned Parenthoods and all. Absintence only rather reeks. And, ...I didn't get sex ed this year...

[lilly2279]

The sad thing is that they could NEVER promote the pill. I can see condoms and abstinence. But I think some uptight parents would really freak out if their kids had a planned parenthood representative come in and tell about the pill. Plus, that would definitely spread STD's.

It is terribly frightening. I could not imagine having a kid at 14 or 15!! I can barely fathom having one at 31! ha ha.