We’ve all heard the recommendations that we should start talking to our kids about sex really, really early – but do we need to start buying them condoms before they get out of middle school? One Swedish company thinks so.
Swiss Condom Maker Lamprecht AG started its new extra small condom line after a study by the Swiss Federal Commission for Children and Young uncovered a sharp up-tick in the number of children between the ages of 12 and 14 having sex and getting pregnant. Nysse Norballe, a spokesperson for Lamprecht, says that the company would like to expand to other markets, especially the UK which has the highest rate of underage conception in Europe.
15 year old British girl Chantelle Stedman makes Norballe’s point rather handily – she gave birth in 2009. Originally, she thought Alfie Patten, 13, was the father. DNA tests showed he was not, which means that not only was she sexually active at age 14 and before, she was sexually active enough that she didn’t know exactly who the father of her child was.
Researcher Nancy Bodmer, who ran a UK study at the Centre for Development and Personality Psychology at Basel University, told the Telegraph that they were shocked to find that young boys neither have well developed sexual knowledge nor have much sense of responsibility should they get a girl pregnant. Their research concluded that early prevention – aka child sized condoms – only made sense.
Lest you think that this concern is only applies to slutty European tweens, a quarter of 15 year old American girls and just short of 30% of 15 year old American boys have already had sex. Approximately 4 in 10 young women in the U.S. have become pregnant at least once before turning 20 and childbearing teens cost the U.S. taxpayers almost 7 billion dollars every year for social services and lost tax revenues.
