Preventing the Effects of Teenage Pregnancy in Australia

Throughout my schooling life, I have witnessed many students who quite honestly know close to nothing about all the different aspects of sexual health, or just sex in general. The health and safety of Australia’s youth should always be a top priority considering they are practically the future of the world. Effects of teenage pregnancy are definitely detrimental and in this essay I will state about the urgent need to implement an obligatory law in Queensland about sex education. Introducing a new law that makes sex education compulsory in Queensland would do just this as it would reduce rates of both teen pregnancy and STDs, and would supply factual and reliable information to those who are less aware of the world surrounding more personal situations. Substantial sex education should include a range of different topics, including human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behaviour, sexual health, and society and culture. However, it is currently not only being taught inconsistently but with a main focus of general health, biology, and anatomy all while dodging other less talked about topics regarding sexual activity.

There is clearly not enough being done to help reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases as they are still a major problem within Australia’s younger generations. The organisation, Protect All Children Today, strongly believe that sex education can help prevent both of these issues. A study was completed by the ‘Centre for the advancement of health’ which found that teens who received comprehensive sex education had a 60% less chance of becoming pregnant or impregnating someone compared to those who received none. This percentage proves that by educating teenagers, it can aid in preventing them from dropping out of high school before they get the chance to graduate, as this is a big consequence of teen pregnancy. It makes you wonder, if schools care so much about their student’s education, why not help them make the right choices so they can keep learning? The idea that 13-18 year old’s are not ready to bear children is rather simple. Most of them will end up living in poverty and relying on welfare due to not having enough access to sustainable and liveable amount of income. An estimated $9.4 billion is spent annually, going towards public assistance, tax revenue, child health care, and foster care which realistically poses a significant financial burden to the rest of society. In addition to this, the children of teenage parents are often born at low weights and experience health and developmental problems. However, the right education should also be preventing STDs as well. Dr David Rhodes, a senior lecturer in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University, stated that a “lack of education about sexually transmitted diseases is reflected in the rise of STIs in the youth of Australia”. A national report released by UNSW said that in 2015, a total of 66,033 people were diagnosed with chlamydia, with 77% being between 15-29 years old. They also stated that 40% of students didn’t even know that chlamydia affects both genders. These numbers are alarming as it means that there is clearly not enough information being provided to students on how to prevent these sometimes-fatal diseases.

In addition to keeping teenagers healthy, they also need to be kept safe. In the past decade, technology has had a major impact on everyone’s lives. It is undeniable that a lot of young people spend enormous amounts of time online, whether that is watching tv shows or movies, on social media, or playing games. A lot of these sources can deliver both incorrect and unreliable information, leading many students to get the wrong impression on certain situations, including things such as the risks related and how to treat others. Quite frankly, if this type of information is not delivered in engaging and factual ways, then kids are going to resort to other means such as pornography, which I think we can agree, isn’t always the best source to learn from. Since there is such a diverse range of different types of porn on the internet, people are bound to come across something that doesn’t display sex in the best manner. This could even lead to young people being unaware about being a victim of sexual abuse. According to a study done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2009, 42% of the victims of sexual assaults reported that year were children under the age of 14, and an average of 27% of those perpetrators had some sort of familial relationship with the child. These numbers are extremely upsetting and suggest that some of these children probably couldn’t fully comprehend the seriousness of what happened to them. This is why sex education can give younger people the right information on what exactly sexual assault is, how to prevent it, and how to seek help if something was to happen.

There is definitely a correlation between the teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, so that is why I have stated in this essay about implementation of an obligatory law about sex education in the Queensland. Sex education is already compulsory in Victoria and the state has seen massive developments in health and safety of the youth. A survey done nation-wide found that 80% of respondents agreed that lessons about sex and sexual health should be the same in all Australian school. So, if Victoria has already improved by implementing an obligatory law, why shouldn’t Queensland do the same?