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The Brazilian government is encouraging teenagers to delay having sex in a bid to curb the country's high teenager pregnancy rate.

The campaign, called Adolescence First, Pregnancy After, was launched to curb's ​Brazil's teenage pregnancy rate, which minister say is the highest in Latin American.

Officials from the Brazilian health ministry and the ministry of women, family and human rights are now encouraging teenagers to delay the start of sexual relationships.

Since launching the project, the government has been targeting their young audience on social media using the hashtag #tudonoseutempo (All in good time).

Damares Alves, an evangelical pastor and the minister for women, family and human rights told the campaign launch: “We have been talking about this for a year, because we need to change the numbers that are set.

"We talked and had the courage to talk about delaying the onset of sexual life, including this topic in the whole range of preventive methods that already exist.

"It is not a moral issue, nor just one of behaviour. There are many things that divide and separate us, but life needs to unite us."

The government said they will continue to give out information on contraceptives, encourage teens to talk to their families and seek out health advice.

But critics say more needs to be done in improving sex education in schools.

But Danie Sampaio, a birth-support activist in Sao Paulo told the BBC that information - not abstinence - is the answer.

"We need to talk more with women to break down taboos and beliefs that constrain women, beliefs that are just passed on by their mothers and grandmothers," she said.

Helena Bertho, editorial director of Azmina feminist magazine, also told the broadcaster: "The focus should be on making sex education work better but it's going in the other direction."

The Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta addressed the claim that the campaign was intended to impose sexual abstinence.

He said: "This was an interpretation, because at no time was talk about prohibition. What has been said is: there is time for everything - adolescence does not match pregnancy ”.

"We are not going to put them in a herd, as if they were moved only by sexual instinct."

Damares Alves​ added: “This campaign is a start, we are listening to everyone. We also want to talk about the other consequences of early sex.

"Early sex is not just about pregnancy and STDs. There are other serious physical illnesses for an 11 year old girl, a 10 year old boy."