SACCHARINE pop-culture portrayals of teen pregnancy are contributing to Tasmania's consistently high teenage pregnancy rates, says Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne.
Ms O'Byrne said that while there was little concrete evidence on the reasons for the state's high teen pregnancy rate, popular media portrayals of teenage mothers did not always reflect reality.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that Tasmania's teen pregnancy rates have ranged between 24 and 29 pregnancies per 1000 women aged 15-19 over a 10-year period to 2008.
The only exception was a peak of 32.7 in 2001.
The average rate on the mainland is 17 pregnancies for every 1000 teenage girls, and Tasmania has the second- highest rate in the nation behind the Northern Territory.
Ms O'Byrne said: "For young women having babies, there's a difference between the media reporting (of pregnancy) and accurate stories.
"It's more than just about `oh, isn't it sweet', it's life-changing, and every other decision they make is different as a result (of having a baby)."
Opposition education spokesman Michael Ferguson said young people needed to understand that having children while still a teenager almost always led to reduced education and employment opportunities, and left many young women with reduced options and massive responsibility.
"Better education for both girls and boys is a key step in improving our statistics and helping our young people to make important life decisions in an informed way," he said.
Ms O'Byrne said that while not every teenage pregnancy was unplanned, providing more information to young people and encouraging them to have conversations about the realities of pregnancy would help them to make better decisions.
Higher rates of teenage pregnancy in regional and rural areas were also affected by a perceived lack of choices available to young people in these areas, she said.
Learning Services Northern general manager Liz Banks said high schools and colleges used a variety of approaches within the health and wellbeing curriculum to both reduce teenage pregnancy and assist young mothers to continue with their education.
Launceston College assistant principal Diane Freeman said students considered to be more at risk of a range of issues including non-attendance and teenage pregnancy were included in a program to help them make more informed choices, and a student advisory program for all students included sessions on drugs and drinking as well as sexual health issues.
Ms Freeman said that the college's student support services also provided individual assistance as required for young mums and dads.
"We try to keep them here (at college) for some of the time - it's difficult for them to be full-time - in the hope that they could get back into further study, although it might take them longer than two years to complete years 11 and 12," she said.
"I think it's the best thing, to get them out and to socialise, apart from the educational outcomes, and hopefully they can go further and get on to a career pathway.
"It's also for them to realise there is life still for them and they can still have a career and a young family, but they will still find that really difficult."
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