Is it now a career move to get up the duff so early?

[Loosehead]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13523408,00.html

[kevb0444]

Yep coz the government give you everything on a plate.

[caz21]

Hell yeah! she's famous now afterall! what little girl wouldnt want that?
She'll probably get a nice big house free and grants for baby clothes and an �18k income pa too! and never have to work again! hmmmm, think i might try that one...

(sorry if this sounds harsh, i do not have a problem with anyone who claims benefits if they need them, but some just do it coz they are scroungers!)

Hopefully this kid will prove me wrong and go to college and earn her money the hard way...

[Loosehead]

What amazes me is her mum says she's "proud" of her!

[sp1814]

Well who wouldn't be proud of her 11 year old daughter being pregnant...and smoking 'up to 20 cigarettes a day'.

The parents who should be ashamed of themselves are the ones who's kids stay in school, get good qualifications, work for a living and give something back to society.

I don't know how they can hold their heads up.

[purpose]

I think it is absolutely disgusting.

It can't be right on ANY level, surely...?

[noxlumos]

Well it's certainly not the ideal, but the matter is done now so is it really appropriate to slate the girl for trying to make the best of a very unfortunate set of circumstances? She's keeping her baby and is taking responsibility for it, and in that sense she is doing the best she can do.I didn't see anything in that article saying that her mother was proud of her behaviour in getting pregnant, just proud of the fact that she had chosen to have her baby, which is not an inappropriate comment I don't think.Her family may well be on benefits or then again they may not, again I didn't see anything to suggest that in the article.

She may go on and make a perfectly good mother but if she does it won't have been made any easier by people making sweeping generalisations about her or her family. She made a mistake, she's very young, how many of us have led infallible lives? Not me for a start off. I think she needs kindness, support and guidance, not critisism, hate and derision.

This is a young girl and a baby we're talking about not bloody Myra Hindley, lets save such vitriol for those that warrant it.

[Pippa68]

Another discussion here:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Q uestion234151.html

[BigDogsWang]

Hang on, April Fools day was weeks ago!!!!

No mention of the 'father to be' being hauled in? He is, after all, a sex offender.

[purpose]

How, exactly, is she trying to make the best of her circumstances...?

She is (so we're told) smoking 20 cigarettes a day!!!!!

And SHE won't be taking full responsibilty for it... she is 12 years of age. She CAN'T take full responsibility for herself, let alone another human being.

[BigDogsWang]

noxlumos - nobody is criticising the young girl. And nobody has said they 'hate' her. How can you hate someone you don't know?
What people are up in arms about is the fact that the mother does not appear to give a sh*t that her 'little girl' has been knocked up by some 15 year old. Add to this the fact that she allows her to smoke 20 a day, she obviously has not guided this child on what is right / wrong. It seems to me that this very young girl has been allowed to do just as she pleases.
I'm sure once offspring arrives, and the girl is up at 3am changing nappies, she won't be 'really excited' for long.
She has lost her childhood.

[spinchimp]

not sure the father is a sex offender - he is 15 she is 11, both under the age of consent - perhaps that means they are both offenders.

[BigDogsWang]

just found this:

"If the girl is under 13 then there is no defence and it will be treated as rape, which has a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. If she is aged between 13 and 15, the man could receive up to two years in prison."

"If a female over the age of ten has any form of sex with a boy or girl under the age of 16 then she also may be charged with sexual assault or even rape"

I cannot find anything about what happens to the boy if they are both are underage, as the first passage seems to relate to a 'man'.

Either way, it looks like they are both in trouble!

[electricblue]

with all this publicity???Nah,,they'll just sell the story,get a tap on the wrist and leave the taxpayers to bring the child up!!

[youngmafbog]

This sort of thing wont end until the government of the day take drastic measures. If you are underage then there should be no choice Social Services will take the child away and foster it, that way you do not gain from your misdemenour. If I had my way that would also apply to any unpartnered person who was relying on the state to bring them up.

How you can say she is taking responsibility at that age beggars belief. So are you saying she is not taking a penny from the state ?

[maxi29]

Youngmafbog, that is one of the maddest suggestions I have ever seen. There's a desperate shortage of foster parents in this country - haven't you seen the many newspaper and poster ads? If we can't meet the foster needs of kids already, why add to the number of children taken into care?

But even if there were plenty of foster carers, it's still a mad idea: partly because the cost of keeping a child in care is many times the cost of any benefits paid to parents (so there's no saving for taxpayers) and partly because there's plenty of evidence to suggest that children in care are more likely to become criminals, have mental health problems, educational difficulties etc - again, adding more to the burden on taxpayers, as well as the damage we cause to the children and society as a whole.

[youngmafbog]

You are of course just comparing the cost of directly looking after the current children. If it worked as a deterant then the cost would decrease plus kids would not be bought up in an unsuitable background. (With an underage mother)

You quoted plenty of evidence to show that more children in foster care grow up to become criminals then if they were left with underage mothers. Can you point me in the direction of this evidence please.

So you slated my idea but I didn't see any ideas put forward by yourself to counter mine.

Are you saying we should all just payup and shut up ?

[undercovers]

as the father is also a child the appropriate conviction would come under section 13 Sexual Offences Act
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2003/30042--b. htm#13

and as can be seen this offence relates to both of them, the law created in 2003 is a bit contraversial as it means that even consensual touching between teenagers who are consenting will be criminal offences.

[hartley]

The reports say that this girl's mother is proud of her for "keeping the baby" not for getting pregnant at 11. I would think that the girl got a bl00dy good telling off when she told her mum but I think that the support of the mother is admirable. If the girl (probably with the advice and support of her family) decided to keep the child I think that it would have been awful for the girl's mother to then publically condem her daughter and say that she is ashamed of her.

In response to your "career move" comment. There is nothing stopping this girl from getting qualifications and a job in the future. Young mother does not always equal eternal sponger. Yes, she might get grants for baby clothes etc - more power to her if she's entitled to them. Its better than the child going around in rags cos her mum is 12 and can't legally work - don't you think? I would think that the fees from selling the story will probably keep the nipper in Pampers though......

[noxlumos]

To me, some of the posts on this thread are hate filled and it's getting more and more prevalent across the whole site to be honest to the degree that it makes me cringe to read some of the inappropriate downright cruel responses such as "take all underage mother's babies away".What a stupid, ill informed, inhuman idea.

If you want to cut underage pregnancy then you need earlier and more thorough sex education, not silly ideas that sound as if they've come out of a Victorian melodrama.

Purpose, she clearly IS taking responsibility and I'm not going to go into a huge, long winded discussion splitting hairs over the technicality of the law with regards to responsibility.What is obvious is that she's found herself pregnant and is now going to have her child and raise it, and contrary to what you might imagine the Govt won't throw money at her hand over fist.She'll struggle, as will her mother in efforts to help her.

As for prosecuting her or the babies father, whose also just a kid, for sex offences, what good will that do the girl or her baby?You won't deter young people having sex and I don't think it's fair to criminalise children that do and stigmatise them for the rest of their lives with a conviction by grace of this ridiculous set of legislation that makes two teenagers kissing criminals.

It's so well known that kids in care are more likely to become criminals, take drugs and suffer mental illness that I'm surprised you even question it youngmafbog.

Just google in "care, crime, statistics" or some suchlike and you'll be swamped with sites explaining it all for you I'm sure.

[noxlumos]

Well put Hartley, we cross posted:)