A youth advocacy assembly has been held at Saltpond with a call on government to ban the importation of pornographic materials.
The youth also appealed to government to regulate activities of internet operators with the view to preventing children from watching
pornographic films.
The youth advocacy assembly was sponsored by the Mfantseman Area Development Programme of World Vision Ghana, in partnership with United
Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the National Youth Council (NYC).
The children, drawn from Junior High Schools in the Mfantseman Municipality identified teenage pregnancy, poor BECE results, poor sanitation, child trafficking and child labour, truancy by school children and destruction of a stone quarry at Abonko near Mankessim as major issues affecting the youth and advancement of the municipality.
The assembly was organised the semblance of District Assembly meetings with some of the children appointed as Presiding Member, Municipal Chief Executive, Coordinating Director, who is the secretary to the assembly with others participating as assembly members.
The children argued that the increase in the prevalence of teenage pregnancy, rape, defilement and incest in the municipality and the country
were the result of watching or reading pornographic materials.
On poor sanitation, the children reminded Ghanaians that gutters were constructed for easy passage of water but not to be used refuse dumps.
They advised people who use gutters as refuse dumps to stop it to prevent flooding of local communities.
The children appealed to the Ghana Education Service to compel teachers to put off their cell phones whilst in class as rampant calls during school hours disrupted teaching and learning.
The Assembly called for the teaching of sex education right from primary to the senior high school to make children to know what sex had in
store for them.
They called on parents to provide the needs for their teenagers especially the girls to prevent them from going to boys who could abuse them for their needs.
The Assembly appealed to the municipal assembly to relocate the school at Abonko as the excessive noise from blasting of rocks and the machines could endanger the health of the children and also the cracks created in the
walls of the school buildings could cause their collapse at any moment.
Mr. Ebenezer Lamptey, Mfantseman Area Development Programme Manager of World Vision Ghana, said his organisation was a child-centred NGO which aims at holistic development of the child.
He said he was impressed with issues the children raised which they claimed inhibit their development.
He said people who attended the Youth Advocacy Assembly would have a change of mind and involve children in decision making.
Alhaji Ishaq Asuru, Municipal Coordinating Director, was highly impressed about the arguments the children advanced about the issues
identified, and commended the organisers and sponsors for a good work done.
Mr. Anthony Baison, who represented Municipal Director, appealed to parents to take interest in programmes involving their children.
Resolution on solutions of the issues discussed was presented to the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Henry Kweku Hayfron, through the Coordinating Director.