Is Facebook behind a 50% drop in teen pregnancies?
THE number of teenage pregnancies has halved in just eight years.
Conceptions among under18s fell to the lowest on record as the emergence of the socalled ‘sensible generation’ saw teenagers turn away from smoking, drinking and drugs.
The decline, charted in figures released yesterday, also coincides with the rise of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which experts say have transformed the behaviour of young people.
Only 21 girls among every 1,000 aged between 15 and 17 became pregnant in 2015 – half the 42 in 1,000 recorded in 2007. There was a similar fall among the under-16s, with pregnancies for 13 to 15-yearolds falling from 8.1 in every 1,000 to 3.1 over the same period.
The Office for National Statistics, which published the figures, said that improved sex education programmes and better access to contraceptives are among the factors that could have contributed to the decline in pregnancies.
But it added that a ‘shift in aspiration of young women towards education’ and the stigma attached to teen pregnancy could also have seen youngsters change their sexual behaviour.
The overall number of teen pregnancies in England and Wales for 2015 was 20,351 – the lowest since records began in 1969 – down from 22,653 in 2014. It follows guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in 2014 that said schools should provide free morning-after pills to teenage girls, including those under the age of consent, to cut unwanted pregnancies. In 2001, Tony Blair’s government had made the morning-after-pill available on-demand to anyone over 16.
Professor David Paton, of Nottingham University, said the fall had come despite recent cuts by local authorities to contraception services. ‘The sharp decline ... is due in part to the improvements we have seen to schools and which have provided young people with opportunities that give them the incentive to avoid early pregnancy,’ he said.
‘ Teen pregnancy rates have also gone down very significantly in most western countries including some like Ireland where con- traception for underage youngsters is much harder to access than in England.
‘The root cause appears to have been a more general decrease in risk-taking behaviour amongst young people with lower rates of drug taking, smoking and alcohol use.’
He added: ‘There does seem to be something that has caused teenagers to take fewer risks with sex, drugs and alcohol since about 2008. Given that social media also increased in importance very quickly from about the same time, it is reasonable to suggest that the two phenomena may be connected in some way.’
‘Taking fewer risks’