Student-to-Student Abuse and Harmful Sexual Behaviour

Harmful sexual behaviour in children under 12

Most children and young people are likely to engage in some level of age-appropriate sexual behaviour as part of typical development. Research identifies a continuum of sexual behaviours from common sexual play through to very concerning sexual behaviour.

Children with harmful sexual behaviour means children less than 12 years of age demonstrating developmentally inappropriate and/or aggressive sexual behaviour.
Harmful sexual behaviour may include:

• frequent, repeated behaviour, for example, compulsive masturbation
• sexual behaviour between children who do not know each other well
• high-frequency occurrences of sexual behaviour that interfere with normal childhood activities
• sexual behaviour associated with emotional distress
• sexual behaviour between children of different ages and developmental levels
• aggressive, forced and/or coerced interaction between children
• behaviour that does not stop once the child is told to stop, or occurs in secrecy
• behaviour that causes harm to the child or other children.

Research suggests that only a small number of children develop harmful sexual behaviour.

Staff need to consider:

• if the behaviour is abnormal
• if the child should be referred for specialist assistance
• when to report an incident to the appropriate agencies.