Regional News of Friday, 3 April 2009

Source: Space FM,Sunyani

Adolescents warned against patronizing pornographic materials

The Executive Director of the Beauty In Virginity,(BIV) Mrs Theodora Owusu Asubonteng, has cautioned adolescents and the youth to desist from purchasing and reading pornographic materials which have the power of influencing their feelings negatively.

Adolescents have also been advised against feeding their minds on violent and sexual lyrics of certain sound tracks. She again warned adolescents against engaging the opposite sex in nocturnal activities which most often lead to premarital sex.

Mrs Asubonteng was addressing over one hundred members of the BIV, an abstinence club in Sunyani on the theme, “The Youth, HIV/AIDS and the Need to Abstain”.

The executive director expressed concern about the many children watching and listening to the numerous indecent programmes on radio and TV sometimes deep into the night.  “The numerous sex related radio and TV programmes children watch deep into the night is very alarming and efforts must be made to address the situation”, she said. Mrs Asubonteng urged the youth to be careful about the kind of friends they pick since negative peer pressure could lead them to engaging in certain social vices.  She bemoaned the attitude of some parents who push their children, especially the girls into certain immoral conducts, such as early sex in the name of making money and charged such parents to desist from the practice. Mrs. Asubonteng charged young girls to be hard on men who attempt to abuse them and report all such cases to their parents, teachers, pastors and the police. She urged stakeholders to put in place adequate mechanisms to monitor child-centered civil societies and how they utilise funds they access. She also appealed to churches to step up efforts at addressing the many problems facing children in the country.