Monitor; All the News of the World: Underage Sex

British comment following the revelation of a 12-year-old girl's pregnancy

The Sun

THE LAW has been broken. If their parents didn't know what was going on in her bedroom, they damn well should have. Have they lost all control? Don't they have some sort of duty to preserve childhood innocence? Kids can master the mechanics of sex after school lessons. But who tells them about waiting until you are mature enough to know what sex and love really mean? Maybe marriage and bringing up kids properly isn't cool today. But children having babies at the age of 12 is a high price to pay for giving parents the right to please themselves.

Daily Mail

IT SEEMS odd to me that, as a society, we should be so complacent about the thorough sexualisation of children's outlook on the one hand, and so terrified of the sexual abuse of children on the other. It is as if we don't know any longer how to guide children into adulthood. Children who grow up slowly are happier and achieve real maturity, compared with those whose childhoods last only a short time. Those who put away childish things too soon remain incapable of further progress in life. They have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge before they are capable of digesting it. (Anthony Daniels)

Evening

Standard

LET'S NOT be drawn by the red herring of sex education which the boy has trailed. We need more sex education, not less, but that's not the point. If this boy had a future, if this girl had other dreams than motherhood, if their parents were not distracted with the consequences of their life choices and the limitations imposed by poverty, they might not all be in this mess. (Lesley Garner)