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Subject: U.K. boy becomes dad at 13
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Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:08:44 -0600
Xref: news.nzbot.com alt.fan.rolex:7860
U.K. boy becomes dad at 13, newspaper says
The Associated Press
3:57 PM EST February 13, 2009
A British schoolboy fathered a child with his then 14-year-old
girlfriend, making Alfie Patten one of the youngest parents ever in
Britain, The Sun Times reported on Friday.
He's 13. He scarcely looks 10. And according to a British tabloid,
he's a father.
Baby-faced and only 4 feet tall, the boy, Alfie Patten, was just 12
when he impregnated Chantelle, now 15, The Sun reported Friday. Shown
in a video posted Friday on the tabloid's Web site, the diminutive
Alfie takes the newborn girl in his arms.
Asked what he would do to support the child financially, Alfie asks in
a small, high-pitched voice, "What's financially?"
The girl was taking birth control pills but missed one, the newspaper
reported. Friends and relatives left the family home near Eastbourne,
about 70 miles southeast of London, Friday without speaking to
reporters gathered outside. The teenagers could not immediately be
contacted.
The Sun did not say whether any tests were conducted to prove the
boy's paternity. The paper did not offer any immediate comment when
asked whether it had paid the family for the story.
Police and child services in Eastbourne, in southeast England, said in
a statement that they were "aware of a 14-year-old girl that had
become pregnant as the result of a relationship with a 12-year-old
boy," adding that they were offering support to both young people.
Alfie's front page picture has sparked renewed debate about teen
pregnancy in Britain. The country has one of the highest teen
pregnancy rates in Europe, and government figures show that about
39,000 girls under age 18 became pregnant in 2006. More than 7,000 of
those girls were younger than 16.
"I don't know the individual details of the case, but of course I
think all of us would want to avoid teenage pregnancies," Prime
Minister Gordon Brown said Friday.
Britain had 27 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 between 2000 and
2005, according to a report published by Population Action
International. Comparable figures are 10 per 1,000 for Spain, 8 in
1,000 for France, and 5 in 1,000 for The Netherlands.
Britain's teen pregnancy rate, however, is still far below that of the
United States, which registers 44 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19
and are more line with English-speaking countries such as Australia
and New Zealand, which respectively have 17 and 27 births per 1,000
women between 15 and 19, according to the report.
But the country's reputation as Europe's teen pregnancy capital has
been an embarrassment to politicians.
In 1999 then-Prime Minister Tony Blair described Britain's record on
pregnancies as shameful and vowed to turn it around.
"Put simply, you are still a child when you are 14 and, in a civilized
society, children should not be having children," he said at the time.
The government has since poured millions of pounds (dollars) into
advertising and educational campaigns.
Educating youngsters
Brook, a U.K. group that provides sexual health advice to people under
25, said teen pregnancies had fallen by about 12 percent since 1998,
but more had to be done.
"It can be easy to concentrate on young women but young men need as
much support and information," Brook's chief executive, Simon Blake,
said.
In a move last year to tackle the high teen pregnancy rate, British
education officials announced they would start introducing sex
education earlier in English schools. Beginning next year, children as
in grades as low as kindergarten will be given basic sex education.
Tony Kerridge, of the sexual health group Marie Stopes International,
praised the move, but local lawmaker Nigel Waterson said the pregnancy
raised "huge questions" about whether British children were being
educated about sex - at the expense of learning about healthy
relationships.
'We made a mistake'
Chantelle and Alfie have reportedly pledged to raise the child as best
they can.
"We know we made a mistake but I wouldn't change it now," Chantelle
was quoted by The Sun as saying.
Alfie's father, Dennis - who reportedly has nine children - said his
son told him it was the first time he had sex. He was reportedly
allowed to sleep over at the girl's house.
"It hasn't really dawned on him," Patten, 45, was quoted as saying in
the paper.
"I will talk to him again and it will be the birds and bees talk," he
said. "Some may say it's too late but he needs to understand so there
is not another baby."
Britain's youngest-known father was said to be a 12-year-old boy in a
suburb north of London who impregnated a young neighbor in 1998.
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/articles.aspx?afid=1&aid=29184929&pg1=1
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