by Eva Maler

Created on: June 02, 2009   Last Updated: June 06, 2009

Ever since I read my first newspaper the number of teen pregnancies seems to go up and up and... you get the idea. Girls as young as 14, 13 or even 12 become mums. According to the BBC 41.9 out of 1000 girls between 15 and 17 years old conceived in 2007 (that is 1 % up from the previous year).

While, I hope, we all agree that 14 is way too young to be a mother (or a father, if it comes to that) opinions people are of different opinions if it comes to answer the question: WHY?

Is it because children are too early confronted with sex (be it through media, friends or education) or is there too little actual knowledge about sex and how to have it responsibly.

Just through watching TV and reading newspapers (especially the ones being handed out free in the station) we are confronted with one fact: today's society is obsessed with sex and it is incredibly easy to access sex- related images and information. Just buy a newspaper or, if that is too much of an effort, have some fun on Google - "sex", so I've heard, is the most popular search on the world's favourite engine.

So it's definitely not a lack of information but, in my humble opinion, the quality of information. The top tree results on Google for sex: "full free porn videos", "the ten best sex toys" and "sex videos metacafe". For information on contraception, for example, we have to scroll down further.

Do we really need a rocket scientist to work out the following? The pressure is on to constantly be sexy and to have sex in an increasingly early age. Back in my own school days the acceptable age for the very first time was 13 or 14, I was so ashamed to admit I was still a virgin at that age I invented a boyfriend who lived in another town.

This pressure won't go away from pretending it doesn't exist. It won't cease from over- protective parents prohibiting sex or even talking about it.

The only way to help kids - who, as hopefully all of us remember- tend to do ...well, how can we say that nicely.... very stupid things (like, for example, having unprotected sex "because Gemma from my class has done it, too") - is to give them information. Tell them that we trust them to make sensible decisions.

And, seriously parents, what better place is there then school to do just that? I know it can be highly embarrassing for a parent to talk to their kids about how IT is done. So why not leave the essential information to a professional who is getting paid to pass the info on without blushing and an extensive use of words like "er". I have been lucky enough to have both a very open and approachable mum and quality information from school: "If you don't use a condom, kids. There will be an assortment of hideous diseases, some of which are fatal or you will get (your girlfriend) pregnant. And this is how you put it on."

This information definitely weren't the cause of me being embarrassed of my "late" loss of virginity. They encouraged me to act sensibly and taught me how.

The pressure came from the magazines I read, watching too much TV and classmates

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