For a long time, the over-sexualisation of British teenagers has been seen by some people as a problem of endemic levels. If they’re not being accused of ruining their own potential with all that ruddy sexting, they’re being accused of ruining the economy by mindlessly popping out benefit-scrounging sprogs. The dicks. When you read the news about teens in this country, it’s easy to assume the situation is pretty bleak.
Not so today, however, because there’s finally a bit of good news from the Office for National Statistics, who have just released figures showing a dramatic decline in the number of teen pregnancies. Fewer than 30,000 babies were born to girls under 20 in England and Wales last year, down from 45,000 in 2006. If that wasn’t heartening enough, records show the total is now at its lowest number since 1951. Boom. The figures also showed that the average age of a new mother is now 30, up from 29.8 in 2012, which is the oldest age of motherhood since records began in 1938.
Analysts seem to think that the change isn’t down to Labour’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy – which concentrated on education and a wider distribution of condoms – since that was pretty much halted in 2010. Teen pregnancies have fallen by over 25 per cent since then, so what is the fall down to?
As with ALL of modern life’s issues, some people seem think that the internet is to blame. Analysts think that the biggest change in recent years has been the complete proliferation of social media, so kids are apparently now locked up indoors staring at tiny screens instead of outdoors bonking behind bike sheds like ‘the good old days’.
Professor David Paton of Nottingham University said:
‘Facebook use among teenagers was just getting off the ground in a significant way in 2007. It is hard to deny that social networking applications have changed the way teenagers interact in fundamental ways.
‘Is it too much of a stretch to suggest that, for at least some teenagers, the amount of time spent interacting virtually with friends on a smartphone has led to fewer physical opportunities to engage in drinking, drugs and underage sex?’
Professor David Paton of Nottingham University did also cite the higher number of girls going to uni, availability of the morning after pill and new effective long-term contraception as another reason – which, to be honest, all sounds a lot more sensible to us – but what do teenager girls themselves think? Has social media had an affect on their attitude towards teen pregnancy?
‘I think it’s probably nonsense that teenagers now spend more time indoors because of social media,’ 16-year-old Abi Coxon from South London, who has just finished her GCSEs, tells The Debrief. ‘Yeah, we’re all constantly on social media, but we’re doing it on our phones while we’re out, not cooped up in our bedrooms. I use social media to arrange going out, not to replace it. But what is true is that the one girl I know who did get pregnant was probably slightly bullied on social media, with people talking behind her back about it on Facebook. It wasn’t very nice, but if social media has anything to do with it, it’s just a place that reflect people’s views about teen pregnancy generally. There’s a lot of stigma around getting pregnant young – maybe MTVs Teen Momhas something to do with it? Generally speaking, though, school sex education is really good and everyone knows what to do to prevent pregnancy way before anyone starts having sex. Lots of us in my friendship group are still virgins anyway – it’s not seen as uncool anymore.’
Whatever the factors are affecting the decline, if social media has anything to do with young people adopting an attitude like Abi’s, it can only be a good thing. Refreshing, isn’t it, when the internet is cited as a force for good for a change?
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Picture: Ada Hamza
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.