Over the past eight years, no fewer than 15 girls found they were expecting when they were aged just ten. A further 39 found out they were pregnant when they were 11.
Since 2002 there have been 63,487 pregnancies among under-15s in England and Wales: a total of 23 conceptions every single day among girls too young to legally have sex.
And how many of the adults who are supposed to keep these children safe, whether 'single parents' or not, have been prosecuted for allowing their children to be in a situation where they could get pregnant?
A quick search of the 'DirectGov' site leads to the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which says right at the beginning, with regard to Prevention of Cruelty and Exposure to Moral and Physical Danger. Getting pregnant before you've finished growing has to count as being exposed to physical danger, even if being sexually active whilst still a child is no longer 'immoral'.
It's hard to understand why, in these days where every adult male is a sexual predator and a kiddy fiddler, parents aren't taking more care of their children - after all, children are the central tenets of almost every government policy.
It's so easy to get very angry about statistics like these, and angry about the useless adults who are meant to be caring for their children, but one of the junior members of the wider Rigby family once put the whole thing into context.
This 'junior' had more sense than the rest of us put together and said it's because children are raising children, and don't know how to be adult role models. How can, say, a girl who gives birth at 13 be a good role model to her own child when that child reaches school age when she'd still probably be in full time education herself.
It was also pointed out that if a girl gets pregnant at 10, 13, 14 and so on then she'll only be 20, 26 or 28 by the time her child reaches the same - and might even think it's funny or cool to become such a young grandparent because it might mean getting your picture in the newspaper.
