Teen Pregnancy refers to pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Survey Data released in Conjunction with World Contraception Day shows that unprotected sex is on the raise among young people in Singapore.
61% of 200 sexually active young people between the ages of 16 and 19 surveyed in Singapore have had sex without contraception with a new partner, a 12% rise from the previous survey done in 2010. Furthermore, many teenagers prefer highly unreliable contraceptive methods, such as the "withdrawal" method to safer methods like condoms.Even though the government is trying to stop the rise of teen pregnancy cases through sex education workshops and posters, the message is not getting through to all teenagers. Singapore teens are also very conservative, hence, most are too embarrassed to ask questions about sex in class.
Their ignorance is highlighted by a survey by Bayer, done on 240 youths aged 15 to 20. It found that about 25% engage in sexual activity, of which, about half of them are not using any contraceptives. 0% believe washing the genitals after sex could prevent pregnancy while 15% believed urinating will do the same. Due to the conservative culture in many Singaporean families, these kids actually believe in ridiculous myths about sex as shown above.
Many teenage girls have sex due to family stresses or self esteem issues. They are gullible and easily tricked by "love" from boyfriends due to the lack of love within their family. This is especially the case now in our modern society, as parents are mostly busy with work and do not have time for their kids.The easiest method to prevent teenage pregnancies is to emphasize on contraception and abstinence, be it through workshops or parents educating their child. However, this is easier said than done because many parents believe that is the school's responsibility to impart these values to the students, and school are afraid to go into too much details lest they get severe backlash about what they teach. Furthermore, if the government emphasize too strongly on such topics, many religious groups in Singapore will not approve of it.
Perhaps one way of reducing this problem is to raise the legal age of having sexual intercourse to 18 or 21. Having the legal age of having sexual intercourse at 16 and the legal age to marry at 18, the government might be giving the wrong impression that it's alright for teenagers to engage in sexual intercourse. Moreover, Singapore does sell chastity rings, which are available for affordable prices. Sadly, this is considered a taboo in Singapore and is not a popular option at all.
The mass media in Singapore could also help by being more supportive of sex education through more positive treatment and coverage of the issue. There are existing programmes on radio and magazines such as Teenage and Seventeen that deal with the issue of sex among youths. However, top dailies such as The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and Today, as well as television channels like Channel 5 and Channel 8 should also join in to extend the reach of sex education.While the topic of sex is not exactly taboo in local media, a new form of "taboo" may emerge if the press sensationalizes teenage sex because attention is focused away from serious discussion and education. Finally, it seems to boil down to this point that the family unit is the key decisive factor on this issue of 'Curbing Teenage Pregnancy in Singapore'.
Yet, how to effectively spread messages to the more liberal youths (including me) nowadays are getting more difficult, due to the 'widespread, accessible' exposure to the internet, and foreign culture. Sadly, teaching moral values is definitely not a easy thing to do nowadays.
