Pornography, abuse blamed for sexually problematic children

A sexual assault support service for children in Hobart has embarked on a project to tackle what is considered a growing social problem.

Galileo House says the proliferation of internet pornography, as well as child sex abuse, is turning very young people into perpetrators.

The service's chief executive officer, Karen Jones says it has counselled about 60 children who display what is called "problematic sexual behaviour" in the past 12 months - mostly boys.

Figures from the Education Department show 17 primary school students were suspended for sex-related reasons in 2005.

"Kids have been expelled or discarded or whatever, into some sort of way, and what we're saying that's not the right way to respond, that we need to really face up to what's happened to the child, look at what's going on and leave them in the school environment and sort of work with them," said Ms Jones.

She says schools are referring children as young as six to the service, because of the impact of their behaviour on others.

Ms Jones says they are not necessarily sexual abuse victims.

"There's also things like pornography, there's exposure to all sorts of sexual behaviour that kids generally were more protected from early on," she said.

"And what we're seeing is kids being exposed to some form of abuse and then acting it out in schools and in other environments with other children."

A program is being developed to try to prevent damaged children from becoming perpetrators in adolescence.

Galileo House has received a $70,000 grant from The Tasmanian Community Fund to employ a researcher to develop a group treatment program for boys.

Ms Jones says it is a growing social problem.

"Problem sexual behaviour, you're probably looking at say round five years of age, seven years of age when we see it starting in a lot of children and it can keep progressing unless something's done about it," said Ms Jones.

"So the program here is designed to turn that behaviour around before kids, those behaviours continue into adolescence."

T'meika Knapp is designing group programs based on successful models interstate and overseas.

"Where kids can come and talk to each other and find out that they're not alone and that there is some help out there and give them some hope for the future," she said.

It is planned to start running the programs in September.

The Education Department says schools deal with problematic sexual behaviour on a case-by-case basis, with the help of guidance counsellors and social workers.