Should Parents Encourage More Teen Sex in an Attempt to Lower Teen Pregnancy Rates?

Teen pregnancies have been rising in the UK and a public debate has broken out over the recent tragedy of a 12 (now 13) year old boy who got a 15 year old girl pregnant after her mother left them home alone. The Labour Government, that instrument of decisive action, waded into the breach with - I kid you not - a pamphlet. (See a previous post called "Parents told: avoid morality in sex lessons.") The pamphlet advised parents not to make sex into a moral issue when talking to their children. (Apparently, some were tempted to do so and the Government had to act.) Obviously, the Labour Government, being a socialist government after all, thinks morality is to be avoided at all costs in all matters sexual. Heavens, you might cause the children to rebel! But, think about it. If they have no rules, how can they rebel? This is pure genius! Why has no one come up with this before now? I guess it took a socialist government and many, many highly trained, social scientests to come with this new scientific, foolproof parenting strategy. No word yet on when the Government plans to abandon attempts to moralize about homophobia and racism, but the sooner this happens the faster we will be on our way to a perfect society.

Today, we are treated to a wonderful headline that makes the Times sound like Seventeen magazine: "Teen Sex: Should You Allow Sleepovers?" Have a bunch of "valley girls" taken over the news room? I can only suppose that any day now we will have an exclusive interview with Gordon Brown in which the burning question of the day will be girls asking him how to deal with the trauma of when your braces get caught in his sweater and other such critical concerns. Or maybe a panel of female cabinet ministers could discuss questions like: "Will I get a bad reputation if I don't go all the way by the second date?" and "Should modern girls expect him to pay for the condoms out of his allowance?"

The article suggests that it is a real parenting dilemma to decide whether to allow some boy to stay in your 14 year old daughter's room all night or not. Hmm . . . How best to prevent pregnancy? More sex or less? It's so hard to say - flip a coin. It sounds to me like some kindly soul should call the author of this article and explain clearly - perhaps using short words - where babies come from.
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5834488.ece

Let's see if we can take this daring and edgy journalism to the next level of edginess and daring. Should parents try to keep their children from having sex or ensure that they are "doing it" before junior high, just to make sure they are ready for junior high? Should parents have any rules about members of the opposite sex, dating etc. and if so should they include methods of contraception? Should parents enforce any boundaries or would that be "Victorian" (gasp!)? Should fathers take their 12 year old sons to whorehouses instead of sporting events for their birthdays? Should mothers go one step further and rent their daughters out to neighbourhood boys? (It could provide extra income during recessionary times and . . . it could pay for the trips to the whorehouses too.) Should parents leave morality out of the sex advice area altogether or should they insist that virginity is a moral deficiency? So many tough questions - so few obvious solutions.

Maybe if the mainstream media and the government get stumped, they could call the editors of Seventeen or maybe Playboy. While they are at it they can pick up a few tips on good policies for getting that virginity rate down to zero, along with the stock market.