Government: don't tell your children underage sex is wrong

Briefing. Beyond belief.

From SPUC: British government advice reportedly tells parents not to say to their teenage children that having sex is wrong. Ms Beverley Hughes MP, children's minister, says parents should advocate birth control to their sons and daughters, and the government explained that that included 13-year-olds (who are under the age of consent). Such advice is predicted to be in Talking to your Teenager About Sex and Relationships, a pamphlet available from pharmacists from Thursday-week (5 March). Dr Patricia Morgan, the sociologist, says young people do heed their parents when they say they disapprove of underage sex. [Mail, 23 February] John Smeaton of SPUC said: "The government's teenage pregnancy strategy is failing yet here we have ministers telling parents to give value-free sex education and even to go with their under-age daughters to the GP's surgery to get birth control."