LIFE, the UK’s leading pro-life charity, is calling on the Government to act now following the Royal College of Nursing’s research highlighting how a generation of pupils are being pressured into early sexual activity. A Life spokesperson said: "When will this Government realise that their relentless promotion of value-free sex education to children and access to contraceptives and abortion is a major cause of this alarming rise in teenage promiscuity?’’ The RCN’s paper also blames TV soaps and magazines for the pressure upon young people to have sex. Increasingly children are finding themselves without family support, and turn to their peers and popular culture for guidance. "The Government has a responsibility to monitor the media, particularly TV and magazines, for inappropriate content for children. Magazines aimed at children as young as 12 often contain sexually explicit information and TV soaps are no better." "The RCN believes that there is tremendous pressure upon young people to be sexually active at an early age. Children are emotionally and physically ill equipped to deal with sexual relationships and are getting hurt. STD and abortion rates are soaring and the psychological damage to teenagers is immeasurable. We are urging once again that the Government changes its approach to the problem. Young people should be encouraged to value their childhood and pursue activities in keeping with their age. A generation is growing up feeling under-valued with little or no notion of the true value of sex in a committed relationship such as marriage. In their heart of hearts, the RCN’s nurses do not want to be advising children on sexual matters (and picking up the pieces when things inevitably go wrong). The Government owes it to our young people to stop throwing condoms at the problem and to deal with it in a life-enhancing way that really works." The call comes hard on the heels of a plea by John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk, for the main political parties to address the issue of violence and pornography in film and on TV. "Many people care deeply about standards in entertainment and are concerned about the portrayal of violence, the use of obscene language and the display of nudity and sexual intimacy on television," he said. "We believe the quality of our culture matters and that television, in particular, is promoting violence and uncivilised behaviour ... we look to the politicians to safeguard our interests against the very powerful TV and film industries, and we have a right to expect some commitments on these important national issues." |
