There's a scene in the incredibly poignant Chinese film "The Little Seamstress'' when the 18-year-old girl in love with a re-educated boy from the city during the "cultural revolution'' (1966-76) finds herself pregnant with his child.

She sullenly concludes that with abortion outlawed for the unwed and marriage not allowed until she reaches 20, she "is sunk.'' Her reputation is ruined.

Finally a doctor helps the seamstress out with an abortion.

With the acceleration of China's opening up, young people now differ greatly from their parents on their opinions about sex. Parents who harp at their kids about caution or abstinence are drowned out by the messages youth see everywhere "on billboards and television, DVDs and the Internet.

Sex is depicted as normal, and the way to happiness. There is no getting away from it. As a result, kids react as their hormones kick in. Unprotected sex among adolescents is becoming more and common, with children becoming sexually mature as young as 12 or 13.

China, with about 200 million citizens between 15 and 24 years of age, has 20 million young people enter adolescence each year. And they're reaching sexual maturity four or five years sooner than in the 1970s, researchers say.

All that energy is manifesting itself, make no mistake about it.

A number of teenaged girls will find themselves pregnant, joining the worldwide epidemic that finds 14 million teenage girls getting pregnant accidentally each year. About one-third of them opt for abortion.

As in years past, these kids may still find themselves the subject of some public contempt. Increasingly, however, they at least have some places to turn.

Chongqing Municipality, in Southwest China, founded the country's first "confidential'' centre for assisting teens with sexual issues last year. The agency gives girls free birth control within a week after a client confirms she has had intercourse. The agency does not make moral judgements, officials said.

In its first five months of operation, 200 pregnant girls showed up "the youngest was 12.

In Beijing, the Maternal and Child Care Service Centre in Xuanwu District offers free professional advice to teenagers on sexual issues and performs abortions, if necessary. According to a survey taken among middle school students in the district, 10 per cent of students admitted to already having taken part in sexual activities.

Another such outlet for troubled girls is the Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital of Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province. It provides no-cost abortions for girls 18 or younger.

Chinese are more open about sex than previously, but a teenage pregnancy still remains a source of shame, because girls worry about enraging their parents.

In 1998, 13 per cent of abortions at the hospital that sponsors the Chongqing clinic were unmarried girls. Now, 33.6 per cent of abortions are done on unmarried girls.

Zheng Zhongwei, president of the Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital of Chengdu, said the key to solving early irresponsible sexual activity is better sex education for young people.

At the National People's Congress March session last year, senior legislators filed proposals calling for improvements in the sex education of Chinese youth, and suggested compulsory programmes in schools.

New sex education programmes have since become available at middle and elementary schools across the country. Many parents have welcomed that development, but with some trepidation.

What are the limits" Difficult to say. But a daughter first graduating from high school, going to college, getting married, and then deciding to have a child might be a good indication sex education worked.

That parent should be so lucky.

(China Daily 01/16/2004 page6)