Bristol East MP claims TV plays role in teen pregnancies
Sex on television is partly to blame for Britain's shocking teenage pregnancy rates, a Bristol MP has claimed.
Labour's Kerry McCarthy believes the sexualisation of popular culture is also linked to the increase in diseases such as chlamydia and syphilis.
The Bristol East MP was speaking in Westminster after Tory MP Philip Davies argued sex education in schools was not working because the number of under-19s getting pregnant has risen and diseases were on the rise.
She told MPs: "It seems to me that many other factors could be equally or more to blame, particularly the increased sexualisation of our popular culture and what we see on television."
But more must be done to improve the quality of sex lessons in schools, with a shift towards "relationship education", she said, and raised the findings of a survey by the UK Youth Parliament that showed up to 40 per cent of young people had received no teaching at all on the subject.
"If facts about reproduction are taught in isolation and not in the context of relationship education, they may not be translated into children's own lives," she added.
"I understand that the Government wants to roll out more relationship education rather than just the bare facts of reproduction."
Schools Minister Jim Knight warned that by the time children get to the "university of life", it is often too late.
He said: "Sex and relationships are a crucial part of the process of growing up, and our approach to those relationships, the choices that we make and our ability to keep ourselves safe is what marks us as independent, free-thinking adults.
"Our children's social and emotional development cannot be as haphazard as that. By the time they get to the university of life, it is too late. It is important during those years when young people are tempted to experiment with alcohol, drugs and other things, and when they are operating within different social situations and the parameters of peer pressure.
"Our education system must not shy away from the task of preparing young people for life as fully-rounded human beings."
3 Comments
by Philip, SOUTHVILLE
Monday, December 01 2008, 4:48PM
“It is easy for M>P's to blame telivision for the ills of society,but they are the ones that votefor the laws that cause many of the problems that exist in society today.
Teenage pregnancies are not new,in the 1970' to mid 1990's,Avon County Council operated a school unit for teenage mothers that was nearly always full and also considered expanding it on more that one occasion.
The Bristol South constituency of Public Health Minister,Dawn Primarolo,has for a number of years had the dubious distinction of having the greatest number of teenage pregnancies in Europe.
Ms McCarthy should wander down East Street in Bedminster and other shopping areas of South Bristol and see the large numbers of apparent teenage mothers,some with more than one child and ask them why.
Sex education in many schools is neither comprehensive nor helpfull ask the students about sex education before blaming other bodies,sex education in the home is something that hardly ever happens.There exists today many young girls who believe that becoming pregnant is the easy way of leaving home and moving into a council sponsored fully furnished flat.
If this happens it puts them on the path to a lifetome of living off the state.”
by Gary, Cornwall
Monday, December 01 2008, 11:47AM
“Human nature and\or poverty is more to blame than TV. We seem to have a few generations of career birth generators seeking social housing and social security”
by Bert, Bristol
Monday, December 01 2008, 10:16AM
“I don't understand the great taboo with teen pregnancies. Surely this is the age at which nature designed us to breed? What can be better than falling in love and having kids? Why does BIg Brother not want us to breed? If we bred more people perhaps we wouldn't need so many immigrants. Why is it so essential to stop people settling down and having kids early? Maybe they just want to trap them in the worker-consumer merry-go-round instead.”