Pregnant at 11 years old Primary school girls as young as 11 have become pregnant and gone on to have babies, official figures reveal. Hundreds of Australian girls and boys aged 15 and younger are becoming parents every year, Bureau of Statistics data shows. In 2000, more than 380 girls aged 15 or younger gave birth. And 70 boys aged 15 or younger were acknowledged as fathers on birth certificates. Family advocates blame the disturbing frequency of children bearing children on permissive sex education in schools and a pro-sex popular culture. Soap operas depicting young people as sexually active, music videos and teen magazines must share the blame, the Australian Family Association said yesterday. Fifty-five girls had babies at age 13 in the five years from 1996 to 2000. A small number of girls aged 12 and possibly younger have given birth in the past eight years, but the Bureau will not release precise figures because they are so low. In Victoria in 2000, 13 girls aged 14 or under gave birth, the Department of Human Services says. More than 100 Victorian girls aged 14 or younger have had babies in the past decade. Doctors say the average age at which a girl matures has fallen from about 14 in the 1950s to between 12 and 13. Recent studies have found one in six girls shows signs of puberty by age eight. The Australian figures come amid revelations four 10-year-old girls in Britain have become pregnant and gone on to have babies. Another 23 girls aged 11 have fallen pregnant in Britain over three years. Australian Family Association vice-president Bill Muehlenberg said the figures showed children needed to be taught at school to say no to sex. "Most of our sex education courses in schools give the line 'Do what you want'," he said. "They say put on a condom and practise safe sex, but it's basically a value-free education. But most parents would say there should be values put on it at 10 or 12 or 14." Children were reaching puberty earlier but were unprepared emotionally or socially for sex, he said. "There are a lot of consequences to the sexual revolution that kids are not being told about," he said. "At 10 or 12 there's more important things to do than exploring sexuality. "They should be taught we are different from animals, we can control our urges." Mr Muehlenberg said teachers needed to equip children to fight peer pressure and pro-sex messages in popular culture. "Contrary to what the soapies say, not everyone is 'doing it'," he said. "But soapies and music videos and magazines aimed at young people with front page stories like how to get the perfect orgasm are pumping out that message." In Britain, the plight of pre-teenage mothers was blamed on official tolerance of under-age sex that has given the country the worst teenage pregnancy rates in Europe. Robert Whelan, of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern, said sexually active pre-teens were a major problem. "These cases probably involve pedophile activity or certainly very much older teenage boys," he said. "You do not often find sexual relationships between two primary school children. "Each case is a tragedy for the girl, who will be damaged mentally, physically and emotionally." He said government programs to cut teenage motherhood included the distribution of condoms and the Pill through secondary schools. Critics complain that the policy effectively sanctions sex under the legal age of consent.