Children attacking other kids in sex crimes, major surge since 2012

EXCLUSIVE: THREE thousand children sexually attacked other kids in NSW since 2011, with a 42 per cent surge in child-on-child sex crimes since 2012.

A staggering 140 attackers were younger than 11, figures from the NSW ­Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show.

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THREE thousand children have sexually attacked other kids in NSW in the past five years, with a 42 per cent surge in child-on-child sex crimes since 2012.

A staggering 140 attackers were younger than 11, figures from the NSW ­Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show.

Experts warn online porn is fuelling the rising number of child offenders, which has soared from 572 in 2011-12 to 812 in 2015-16, totalling 3005 in the past five years.

Disturbingly, one in four child sex offenders are children themselves.

Police warned yesterday perverts are using the internet to groom children, who then carry out copycat attacks on friends, siblings and classmates.

After two 12-year-old boys were charged with the alleged rape of a six-year-old girl in the toilet block of a primary school on Sydney’s northern beaches last month, The Daily Telegraph can reveal attacks are occurring at a rate of more than two a day.

Police warned perverts are using the internet to groom children, who then carry out copycat attacks on friends, siblings and classmates.

Some 31 children under 11 assaulted 28 kids of the same age in 2015-16. Another 395 “tweenagers”, aged between 11 and 14, attacked other children, including 243 younger kids, while 386 teenagers aged 15-17 sexually assaulted children, including 70 kids aged younger than 11.

School counsellors are warning of growing numbers of sex-savvy children attacking their classmates.

NSW Police Child Abuse Squad commander Detective Chief Inspector Peter ­Yeomans said perverts were “grooming’’ children with online porn.

“With easy access to the ­internet through smartphones or tablets, not only are children able to access adult material, they can communicate with potential offenders,’’ he said.

“If a child has unrestricted and unsupervised access to the internet, it provides opportunity for an offender to groom them for the purposes of ­contact offences or to obtain child pornography.”

Associate Professor ­Michael Flood, a University of Wollongong sociologist who researches child violence, has “no doubt’’ online porn is helping fuel sexual aggression.

He said 6 per cent of 11 and 12 year olds, 11 per cent of 13 and 14 year olds and 29 per cent of 15 to 16 year olds have watched online sex videos.

“Pornography is a risk ­factor in children’s sexual ­offending. (Offenders) are also more likely to come from dysfunctional family backgrounds with poor parenting, and they are more likely to be victims of abuse themselves,” he said.

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