Peer pressure
"Youngsters need help and this is an avenue where they can have support from their peers. This is not the sort of teaching you get in a locker room where someone says `did you see her breast?' This is positive peer pressure. It's a support system for what I'm teaching my kids. I say `you don't think I'm cool but this is cool.'"
Her daughter, Kristina, 16, agrees that teenagers are under great pressure to be sexually active. "You don't think TV and advertising makes a difference but it accumulates and then you realize that it does. A lot of kids at my school dress exactly how TV and magazines have decided they should. People are trying to grow up fast."
She supports Silver Ring Thing but is not so sure about making a public pledge. "It's intimidating when you're in front of all those people. Maybe people shouldn't make the decision there and then. They should think about it seriously." She thinks it could prove popular among Britain's teenagers. "Sex is a problem for any teenager in most modern countries."
RSS