The recent news of a thirteen year old boy becoming a father has been questioned as two other teenagers have announced that they too could be the father! Whichever of the three teenage boys is the father, the public outcries will remain the same.
The publicity this story has generated has brought very mixed feelings from the British public, government, social welfare and healthcare officials. Criticisms regarding the lack of appropriate sex education being taught in schools has also come under attack from the public.
The young thirteen year old boy, who was originally believed to be the baby's father, has openly admitted that although his intention is to stand by the mother, he has no idea of how he will financially support her or the baby now or in the future.
From a public relations view these young people should be filtering their publicity via a PR company who will look after their best interests and help them turn their dilemma into a positive outcome. Who would pay a public relations company to represent them will also raise issues among the public and government officials.
PR companies may also be wary and with good reason. The public relations company who were representing, free of charge, the mother of octuplets, Nadya Suleman has ceased their representation after receiving death threats and unpleasant voice mails from people outraged by the whole octuplet saga.
The PR company have said that after they have helped Suleman through the initial public uproars, the public's attention and anger had now been directed towards them for representing Suleman.
As with the thirteen year old father case in the UK, it seems that the public's main anger is regarding who will pay for the upbringing and care of the baby. The young boy is still at school for at least another three years, after which time whether he leaves to find employment or enters HE is already in question. With the country's current economic downturn the chances of finding employment are looking pretty slim.
In the States the public's uproar has been over why this 33 year old mother, who now has fourteen children, is receiving public assistance to care for her children. The same concerns over the use of long term public assistance is the predominant outcry in the UK.
Suleman has set up a website on which she is asking for donations to help care for her children, and no doubt she receives money for the newspaper stories and interviews of TV and radio.
The public hue and cry is also partly due to the massive worldwide coverage of the news stories, with many people believing that these were only being used as a way to generate money.
It is these public relations aspects and campaigns which should be sourced via reputable PR company and while they may not offer their representation free of charge, the management of the public relations programme will at least be kept in check, preventing exploitation of the young boy, the baby and indeed the mother.
