The following week-old Reuters article...
"LONDON (Reuters Health) - School children under 16 are being encouraged to experiment with oral sex as part of a Government-backed drive to cut Britain's sky-high teenage pregnancy rate, newspapers reported on Friday.
The Times said the scheme, pioneered by Exeter University and backed by the Departments of Health and Education, trains teachers to discuss pre-sex "stopping points."
The idea is to reduce promiscuity by encouraging pupils to discover "levels of intimacy," including oral sex, instead of full sexual intercourse.
Robert Whelan, director of the Family Education Trust, told the newspaper: "If teenage boys are being satisfied orally on a regular basis, believe me, it won't even occur to them to ask for intercourse."
This change in approach has also raised the issue of whether teens should be encouraged to practice anal sex, another effective method of avoiding pregnancy.
Whelen admits the university's plan is less clear here: "Anal sex, yes, I suppose it is an effective way of reducing pregnancies. But it carries with it a host of other risks. However, if a young couple is careful and practices anal sex very hygienically, I suppose that would work too. And who knows, they might enjoy it more than traditional intercourse."
With nearly 39,000 girls under 18 conceiving each year, Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe. The government has set a target of halving levels by 2010.
To help achieve this, in recent years students have been offered condoms, oral contraceptives and easier access to counselors in schools."
... was at least partially doctored by tv.
I re-print it here without tv's permission, as he's away in Cuba, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Apparently he's going to start (within the coming month) publishing these re-writes on a bi-weekly/weekly basis - on his own public web site no less - which should be much fun.
Outside of this there's little to report.
Posted by ÿ at February 28, 2003 05:48 PMeasier access to counselors, eh? well, that's going to reduce teen pregnancy...
tv to have own (public) website! in other news, marijke's hours of workplace productivity will be drastically reduced...
Posted by: marijke on March 3, 2003 08:22 PM .Ok, TV, now the public is waiting - better get writing those articles!!!
Posted by: BA on March 6, 2003 04:46 PM .So the debut is now scheduled for the 17th - the same day our war is set to begin. And I should make it clear - it's not tv's blog. Other people will use it also.
Posted by: ÿ on March 12, 2003 05:22 PM .