A SURVEY of Irish children showed that 67 per cent had some form of sexual experience before the age of 12. Almost one in five girls and more than one in 10 boys had this experience with an older person and felt it was inappropriate.
The study, which compared the childhood sexual experiences of children in the US with Ireland, found that Irish children were more likely to experiment with sex at an early age than their US counterparts.
Of the 167 Irish children surveyed, almost two thirds had a sexual experience on their own in childhood, compared to 59 per cent of the American children according to Mr Colman Duggan senior social worker at the sexual assault unit at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
He said these findings were based on a survey of collage students and trade apprentices in both countries. He surveyed 168 Irish students, and Ms Toni Cavanagh Johnson, an American academic, surveyed 500 Americans.
According to their findings, 18 per cent of Irish girls and 11 per cent of Irish boys had had a sexual experience before their teens with an older person which they felt was inappropriate. In the US, 15 per cent of girls and 9 per cent of boys had had similar experiences.
It found the children who were abused did not go on to indulge in more sexual behaviour with children of their own age. Fifty nine per cent of Irish students and 57 per cent of Americans believed it was normal for children under the age of 12 to have some sexual experience.
Approximately seven out of 10 children learned about sex from their friends and only three out of 10 remembered hearing about it from their parents.
"What we are saying is that it looks like Irish and American kids have much the same kind of sexual experience. They are not that different. Significantly, we found that where children had been sexually abused it did not mean they were more likely to be more sexualised than other children of the same age.
Mr Kieran McGrath, editor of the Irish Social Worker, said it was important to realise that most abuse took place within families or was carried out by an adult well known to the victim. "The stranger danger idea is the exception rather than the rule."
While one in five of the girls had unwanted sexual experiences, these may not all have been serious and traumatic cases of sexual abuse.
He said that there was a difference between an immature teenager going too far in trying to chat up a girl and a drunken father coming home from the pub and raping his daughter.