IN A parents’ perfect world, teenagers would be more interested in spelling bees than the birds and the bees.

But sadly, in the real world there will always be a proportion of teens who become sexually active.

The important thing is to make sure those that do decide to take their relationship to that level are presented with all the facts of life and the choices that are available to them.

The drop in pregnancy rates seems to show that the message in part is getting through.

The decrease shows work by schools is having an effect, but there is a real issue over sexually transmitted diseases.

It appears to indicate the safe sex message is not being taken on board.

The worry is that, with school nurses able to prescribe the morning-after pill at the school’s discretion, those who are engaging in sexual relations are simply more clued up about how to prevent pregnancies after the act rather than using contraception such as condoms during sex.

The same vigour from authorities that has been applied to drumming in the teen pregnancy message needs to be applied to preventing STDs.