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ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Vol. 42 - No 05
International  

Chastity ring sparks British teenage sex debate

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, (Reuters) - A high court battle between a schoolgirl and her head teacher over the right to wear a purity ring pledging her to virginity until marriage has reignited debate in Britain about how to make sex education effective. It is a heady brew mixing religion with sociology, family, education, lifestyle, peer pressure and freedom of choice.

Britain has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe and data released last week showed that abortion rates are on the rise, particularly among teenagers. And with the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases reaching epidemic levels and far exceeding that of any other country in Western Europe, policymakers, parents, youth leaders and doctors are demanding action.
"There is definitely a sense now that this is desperate and people are asking what are we going to do about it," said Chris Richards, a consultant paediatrician and committed Christian who runs Lovewise, a group promoting teenage sexual abstinence.

A Silver Ring Thing awareness campaign in the US

The desperation he describes has helped launch US-style abstinence projects in Britain over the past three years such as Lovewise, the Romance Academy, and the Silver Ring Thing, in which teenagers pledge to remain chaste until they wed.

Such groups have been given a publicity boost in recent weeks by the case of Lydia Playfoot, a 16-year-old who has taken her school to court over its decision to ban her from wearing her "silver ring" symbolising her chastity pledge. And despite US studies showing the groups have little impact, abstinence campaigners say a "no sex" alternative to traditional sex education is vital for Britain.

Andy Robinson, UK director of the Silver Ring Thing, said although few teenagers are yet signing up to programmes -- probably less than a thousand in total -- he is certain abstinence, not safe sex, is the way to help young people lead happier adult lives.

No sex please we’re teenagers

"I have seen and heard from many teenagers with terrible stories of regret," he told Reuters. "In our schools they teach that it is inevitable that every child will be having sex outside of marriage. And then we as a society give them all of the tools they need to make that inevitability happen.

"We believe we should also give them the tools that they need to say no to sex if they want to." Abstinence programmes first crossed the Atlantic in 2004, when 30 American virgins from The Silver Ring Thing flew over to run roadshows telling British teenagers about the potential dangers of pre-marital sex.

In an interview with Reuters at the time, the Silver Ring Thing's US director, Denny Pattyn, said the results of traditional sex education had been "disastrous". "In America we have kids who have oral sex with six people in one night. It's called the train -- the girl goes down the train -- it's just casual, recreational sex," he said.

Then in 2005 a BBC television show entitled "No sex please, we're teenagers" marked the launch of the Romance Academy, a home-grown teenage chastity project. Rachael Matthews, a founding member, said her group is unashamedly religious, but often engages non-church-going teenagers in its programmes.

Sex education not enough

"We try to be inclusive and not judgmental, but at the same time we like to maintain the value of our message," she said. "Our mission statement is rooted in the sanctity of marriage and sex, and that is a view shared by other religions as well." But Rebecca Findlay of the Family Planning Association (FPA) said proper sex education -- including learning about respect, relationships, contraception and abstinence -- is vital.

"All the international research shows that the more sex education you give young people, the more likely they are not to engage in early sexual activity," she told Reuters. "Sex and relationship education should be aimed at letting young people make a reasoned and informed choice -- whether that be to have sex right away or to delay it."

Findlay feared some abstinence programmes gave inaccurate information to children about sex. "These programmes are very often linked to the agenda of the (American) Christian right, which we simply don't have here as a political or cultural phenomenon."

And data from the United States suggests more than 80 percent of teenagers who make a chastity pledge go on to break it before marriage, burdening young people with sexual guilt as they embark on their adult life, she said. "We have to question how that is dealt with by these organisations."

But for David Paton, an economics professor at Nottingham University, the grim reality is that neither abstinence nor sex education is having any significant impact on teenage sex."We have to look at much deeper economic and social characteristics," he said. "There are some very big factors that have an impact on teenage pregnancy rates -- things like poverty, religion, family breakdown, life opportunities -- and it's very hard to trump those with a few sex education lessons."

 
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