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In
spite of 'education, education, education', underage
sex in Brighton & Hove is still on the rise. Eve Streeter
investigates
Are
you getting enough sex? A recent survey said 40% of adults
think not and would rather like some more, please. Meanwhile
the nation's teenagers are having more of it than ever,
and even younger. The UK has the highest rate of teenage
pregnancy in western Europe, twice that of Germany, three
times higher than France and six times that of the Netherlands.
And it's a problem that has found fertile ground in Brighton
and Hove.
The
city has an above-average rate of underage pregnancies,
and while nearly a quarter of British men and women report
having had sexual intercourse before the age of 16, locally
that figure is more like 40%. Sexual health clinics and
drop-ins at places such as the Family Planning Clinic,
the Young People's Centre and the Youth Advice Centre
are full of young women, and men, wanting contraception,
information and advice about sex. Anything up to half
of these numbers are young women under 16. "Years
ago, people assumed that it was boys pressuring girls
to have sex," says Keith Beadle of the Young People's
Centre in Brighton. "Now it seems to be the other
way around. Girls are more sassy about sex and wanting
to be in a position to lose their virginity as soon as
possible. Many of the young men who come here are feeling
pressurised to have sex at an earlier age and just aren't
ready."
Throughout the country, sex sits high on the agenda of
increasingly young teenagers. "It's a frightening
situation," said one teacher at a local school. "Children
as young as 11 are asking questions about sexual practice.
The majority are naïve about sex but think they know
more than they do through programmes like Sex and the
City. They talk as if they know what they are doing, but
then find themselves in situations they are not ready
for."
"I
was asked in one class, 'Miss, are you a virgin?' And
I said, 'Of course, I'm not married.' They were in stitches.
Of course they didn't believe me. Everyone everywhere
is having sex as far as they are concerned."
Sex
is such an open subject now that young people feel they
should be doing it. A study by the Family Matters Institute
last year was quick to blame magazines. Preoccupied with
sex and claiming to be aimed at young adults, magazines
such as Just Seventeen and More are being read by children
as young as 11, who are learning about '101 Ways to Please
Your Lover'. Sex is glamorous, sex is grown-up. "Lots
of girls do it just to say they've done it," says
16-year-old Sarah. "It means you've taken that step
to being older, to becoming adult and seeming more mature.
It gains you respect. It's all about image really."
Indeed
it's very difficult to criticise young people for relying
on superficial magazines and their friend's lurid tales
as the template for their sexual attitudes and beliefs,
in the absence of any formal education on the subject.
Most schools now include some sort of basic sex education
in the curriculum, but it is at best an explanation of
the mechanical process. Schools have long since abdicated
the role of equipping their pupils with the social, moral
and emotional skills they so desperately require to build
solid adult relationships.
An
upcoming report in the Journal of Social Policy shows
that teenage pregnancy in Britain will remain far above
European levels because sex is regarded as 'dirty' by
too many parents and schools. The prevailing message promoted
by sex education in UK schools is that it is something
illicit, and therefore desirable.
It's
a treatment of sex that doesn't compare favourably to
that in Holland, where low rates are attributed to more
sex talk between parents and children and more education
in schools both about the physical and emotional dimensions
of sex. "Holland is the gold standard for sex education,"
says Sue Ward at the Family Planning Clinic. "Young
people there relate to peers of the opposite gender very
young, but in the UK same-sex friendships prevail and
young people begin relating to the opposite sex at a much
later age." And by that pubescent time, sex prevails.
Sex
is everywhere, and while many grown-ups complain that
there's not a drop to drink, the majority of young teens
that Sue sees have the opportunity to be sexually active.
"There are many under 16s who are out clubbing with
very little parental control, a number of whom are getting
blind drunk and having sex," she says.
Opportunity
is at least part of the reason for the city's high underage
pregnancy rate. Brighton & Hove is the south coast's
culture and entertainment capital, with a wealth of places
for the underage to go out into an adult world. It's a
world regularly frequented by 15-year-old Claire, who
has already had four sexual partners. "Most of my
friends have done it. It's no big deal. We've all got
boyfriends. Sometimes they're boys from school, but mainly
we go out with older guys we meet out at the weekend.
It's just a laugh, isn't it?"
It's
in the city's pockets of poverty, kept well out of the
cleansing glare of the civic spotlight, that underage
sex is a real problem. Government reports have shown a
direct link between poverty and high levels of underage
conceptions, and Brighton and Hove have two of the country's
10% most deprived wards in the country: Moulsecoomb and
Marine. In eastern parts of the city, an area which contains
one of the country's worst performing schools, young people
are more likely to be deprived of the educational and
employment opportunities which help foster more responsible
attitudes towards sex.
They
are also more likely to come from families where the parents
are no longer married. A survey from the Family Matters
Institute found that teenagers whose parents are still
married are less likely to have underage sex, while local
statistics show that women born to teenage mothers are
more likely to become teenager mothers themselves.
It
is in these more deprived areas that some women under
16 are choosing to get pregnant. "It might be that
they were born to teenage mothers themselves, or that
an absence of education makes them see motherhood as a
way forward, something they can do well," says Sue
Ward. In a national study by the Policy Studies Institute,
one in four teenage mothers interviewed said they had
planned to have a baby and 40% were pleased to find they
were pregnant.
All
this has made the government sit up and take notice, and
made local authorities spring into action. On a national
level, the government's National Action Plan aims to reduce
the number of teenage pregnancies by 50% by 2010, with
media campaigns and educational programmes to raise sexual
awareness and more support for teenage parents. Locally,
it means more youth service provision and pastoral care
in schools, providing the right advice about sexuality
and parenting. Most in the sector are unanimous, however,
that education, and early on, is the key. The pressure
is on. After all, it's not exactly the glorious picture
a budding European Capital for Culture for 2008 would
like to present to its Euro buddies, is it?
Factfile:
Each
year in the UK there are nearly 9,000 conceptions by teenagers,
more then 7,000 of these are to girls under 16 and around
2000 to girls of 14 and under.
The
number of pregnancies per 1000 among under 16s in 1998
were highest in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham (16.3),
Walsall (14.9) and Sunderland (13.8). East Sussex, Brighton
and Hove (7.7) were among the worst offenders in southern
England, outside London. East Surrey had the lowest rate
at 4.4.
The
National Index of Deprivation 2000 ranks Brighton and
Hove as the 95th most deprived population out of 354 nationally,
with 12 out of the 26 electoral wards among the 25% most
deprived in England and Wales. Two of these, Moulsecoomb
and Marine are in the top 10% most deprived wards and,
in relation to child poverty, are in the top 5% in the
country. Wage levels are below the national average and
more than one in five households are dependent on some
form of state supported income.
Women
in deprived areas are six times more likely to get pregnant
by the age of 20 than those in the most affluent areas
of Britain.
Three
in four parents of sexually active 13-year-old girls do
not know that their daughters are no longer virgins and
one in five young teenagers lost their virginity when
they were drunk. A quarter of sexually active 13-year-olds
have had four or more sexual partners.
copyright New Insight 2001
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