Births outside marriage

I refer to the articles appearing in The Times titled 30 Per Cent Of Births In 2006 Were Outside Wedlock (February 25) and House Committee Calls For More Family-Friendly Initiatives (February 26).

I had pointed out to the Social Affairs Committee that the statistics regarding births outside marriage were inaccurate. In fact, births outside marriage in 2006 were 22.3 per cent and not 30 per cent. In 2007, the rate of births outside marriage went up to 24.9 per cent. I would also like to clarify that during my presentation to the committee, I referred to a study carried out by the NSO in 2005 regarding students between 13 and 16 years of age when I mentioned that 21 per cent of these youngsters fixed meetings with persons they came to know by chatting on the internet.