Coronation Street courts controversy with forthcoming 'pregnant at 12' storyline

The ITV soap is planning a new plot where 12-year-old Faye Windass falls pregnant, making her the youngest mother in the soap.

16:57 20 June 2014

Coronation Street bosses are currently developing a new storyline for the soap whereby 12-year-old Faye Windass, played by 13-year-old Ellie Leach, falls pregnant later this year. 

 

According to The Sun, this storyline will make Faye the youngest mother in the soap, after previously featured Sarah-Louise Platt discovered she was pregnant at the age of 13. 

 

The soap's plan has indeed drawn some controversy and those behind the soap have been warned about treading carefully in this controversial area. 

 

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said that scriptwriters must be very careful when dealing such topics. 

 

He said: 'One of the problems of giving prominence in a soap to life experiences that are extremely rare is that it can distort people's perception of reality and give the impression that such experiences are far more common than they really are. 

 

'In spite of the fact that teenage pregnancy rates in the UK are high compared with many other parts of Western Europe, they are still thankfully rare - and pregnancies in 12 year-old girls are much, much rarer still.

 

'Scriptwriters and production companies need to take great care that in their desperation to attract high viewer ratings they do not normalise behaviour that is both illegal and damaging to impressionable children.'

 

Meanwhile, a Coronation Street source told The Sun that this was something they have expected. 'This is bound to be a controversial storyline but the programme has a history of handling difficult subject matters in a sensitive and considerate way.'