Why the young want to be mum..

Teenage pregnancy. A term that cannot be escaped from. Bantered around on a daily basis by the wealth of media available to us, as well as anyone who feels they own a moral compass. However, it is also a term that paints a picture of excessively over the top connotations. It is a term that stems ideas of drunken, drug fuelled teenage sex binges – the likes of which only seen on an X rated channel or an episode of E4s skins. Condemned by anyone outside their teenage years and refuted by anyone it is applied to; it is undoubtedly a subject of much contention.

It is first important to pinpoint that the phrase ‘teenage pregnancy’ only first came to prominence in the past decade. Whilst it was of course used prior to this, it was only after intensified media coverage toward youth culture and a wish to look at their deplorable behaviour that it was used to figurehead stories on the subject of youths becoming pregnant (the term youth generally refering to under-16s). As a result of this, it soon gained a negative tag toward it. I believe that by doing so, the media (and eventually the public) used the term as a means of condemning the behaviour of the young. After all, you don’t hear of people writing stories on ‘the unacceptable actions of people in their mid-twenties getting knocked up’.

It is with that, that teenagers became under great scrutiny. Despite their best efforts to show that they were actually upstanding citizens, all areas of their lives were subsequently pushed into the public spotlight by a population of people who had been teenagers themselves. A population of people who were fully aware of the pressures of being young. A population who will undoubtedly remember the awkwardness that comes with the discussion of any means of sex outside their own generational bracket (beautifully illustrated by Jay in The Inbetweeners when speaking to his dad in the unforgettable ‘Caravan Club’ episode). Yet still, the media and elderly persisted in their quest to eradicate such unscrupulous teenage behaviour. Attaching negative attitudes to all areas of their social lives, feeling they knew best, and seeing this as the best means of pressuring teens into stopping. This, I believe, is where they went wrong.

By casting a keen eye onto the behaviour of the young, the media has helped relax social attitudes toward speaking about previously awkward topics such as sex. Had it been 20 years ago, to hear of a family openly talking about sex would have been an unheard of concept. This is where the change has taken place. With it now being something that is openly discussed by all, it has attained a new set of values toward it. Those people who first pressed it into the public eye will say that it has helped encourage families to educate the young about their sexual escapades. But surely this can’t be the case, seeing as teenage pregnancy is at an all time high in the UK?

I would argue that for all the talk of underage being down to ill-fated role models, liberal television and a decline in social values – the real foundation of the rise in underage sex and teenage pregnancy is that of the media. Teenagers now are the same as they have ever been. Inadvertently sexually curious – but where previously they were unaware of what was available to them, they are now not just aware, but feel that they are ‘educated’. As a result we have a wealth of statistics including 300 under 13 girls become pregnant every year and 23 under 15s are expecting every day.

Again society will blame youths themselves. But I can’t help but believe that if they fully articulated the facts they would see that they themselves are the real source of the problem?

I would clarify that I’m not saying all us under-20 something’s are angelic beings. Nor am I actually saying that all youths are unprepared parents – far from it infact. But I fear that such continued negative coverage of youths will result in a complete collapse in social values – which will only lead to worse and worse statistics being publicised.

It’s near unthinkable that even half the people that read this will agree with what I’ve had to say. But I hope that by having read this far you’ll see a degree of truth in what’s been written. Until this situation is rectified however, things will only get worse before they get better...