Hidden problem of children sexually abusing children

To find out your five-year-old son has been sexually abused is, of course, devastating. But how do you cope when you find out that his abuser is his seven-year-old sister? Claire's daughter Hannah was discovered abusing her brother, late last year. Both names have been changed to protect their identities. "That was probably the darkest week of my life without a doubt," explains Claire. "All the anger and the rage, the confusion, the revulsion. I couldn't look at her. I wanted to grab my son and run and never see her again. I was just terrified." [...]

Hannah was regularly sexually assaulted by a teenage boy for around two years. "She didn't understand at the beginning what she was doing was wrong. For her it was just learnt behaviour," explains Claire. [...]

[Claire:] "But this wasn't kiss chase. This wasn't something innocent... it was a sexual act. It wasn't role play in a childlike way. "It was something you might imagine seeing in a late-night porn show." Hannah and her family are now receiving treatment with a specialist counsellor at a project run by the charity Action for Children.

source: Article 'Hidden problem of children sexually abusing children' by Jackie Long; news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8569219.stm; BBC News; 17 March 2010