Baby-faced boy Alfie Patten is father at 13

[Marx]

And yet the url is retained when searching for "Alfie Patten"

[AdensDad]

Simple - the boy is demonized, the girl is ignored. She is much older than him (ok, 15 & 13 isn't that big - but at that age, it is - and just look at the size of her compared to him - she's like a giantess from the black lagoon!!!)

I don't doubt what you're saying is partially true, or possibly all the way true, but let me plays devil's advocate here as someone who's studied journalism.

The article could be said to be an example of how the news is unfair regarding these types of situations, but the article itself is still fair. c

The focus of the article is the young man, because the young man's age is what makes the incident "newsworthy." 13 year old girls have babies much more commonly than 13 year old boys. The rarity of the boy's age creates a demand, at least from the newspaper's audience, that the article focus on him, his family, his feelings. The situation is vilified in the article hence the boy is vilified because he is the focal point of the article.

However, If the genders had been reversed, the article would have tried to also vilify the older child as a sexual predator in some way. About that you are right. The overall approach to this type of news story reflects discrimination.

The "news" is a capitalist enterprise and their job is not to paint a correct picture of the world to people, it's to sell newspapers. The news is a form of entertainment. People who rely on the news as their primary source for information about the world are morons. Reinforcing people's biased, discriminatory views of how the world works is part of the entertainment for people who buy newspapers. If the news told the truth people wouldn't buy it.

By all accounts - she should be registering on the sex offenders list - as I seem to recall a boy of 14 had to recently for having sexual contact with a 12 yr old girl .... hmmmm....

No one should be arrested for engaging in consensual sex. I understand that the overall approach to the law reflects discrimination. The older of the two children (if he's male) in many nations and states, often gets arrested in what I would consider an application of a heartless, sexist and inhuman law, and young girls are usually exempt from prosecution of this same law. But the young lady is not a social movement, she's a person. She didn't make the law and punishing her just because other people are unjustly punished may be beneficial in a social impact sort of way, but not in any real way when it comes to her, the boy, or the baby. They should be our focus. 401 wrongs don't make a right in a world with 400 wrongs any more than two wrongs make a right.

[MikeT]

Not according to this link he isn't.

Who's been a naughty girl then?

[haahoo]

Yes, another slag trick caught by the magic of DNA testing..

The village bike up to the usual tricks!

[johnkimble1]

The Mirror seemto have deleted the story - probably a privacy issue rather an accuracy one, but does me we can't be 100% confident

(extremely obvious that she is lying, but still a 0.00000000000000000000001% chance he might be the father given the story is no longer on any Uk sites).

[RebelliousVanilla]

His parents should sue the newspapers who published that he is the kid so that they write an apology and the truth.

[MikeT]

Good idea in principle RV, but I doubt that it would ever happen.
Reason I say that is because the media stick together on such sensational stories like this.
Lets not forget that the mother of this child's parents have already sold their story to however will listen.
That is what you get with "cheque-book journalism", invariably someone is always lying where money has to change hands, to get a good story.

One thing you forget about this whole thing, a woman has not been wronged, so there is no real grounds for suing anyone.