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	Shocking rise in number of child rape and sexual attack cases reported to helpline</p>
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	More than 600 children were the victims or perpetrators of rape and sexual assault last year - with some &quot;increasingly violent teen-on-teen&quot; incidents linked to pornography, the Sunday Independent has learned.</p>
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	Disturbing new figures reveal 618 parents, professionals and schools contacted the Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) helpline in 2014 to report the rape and sexual assault of children - an increase of almost 500 calls since 2011, when 132 calls were placed.</p>
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	The cases include &#39;adult-on-child&#39; assaults and &#39;child-on-child&#39; assaults - both with and without a history of sexual abuse.</p>
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	In an interview with the Sunday Independent, CARI CEO and former Fine Gael TD for Dublin North West Mary Flaherty said a growing number of child-on-child assaults are occurring on the playground.</p>
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	&quot;Schools can be very good at watching for signs of change, but it&#39;s very important for supervision and for management to be aware that this is a real issue,&quot; she said.</p>
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	Speaking about a primary school referral, she said: &quot;There was a big age difference and it&#39;s by no means the first we have come across in the school setting,&quot; she said, adding that sexualised bullying may be &quot;necessarily secret&quot; as it&#39;s &quot;particularly shameful&quot; and hard to admit.</p>
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	&quot;Children have fallen off the search light because all the focus has been on historic and adult abuse,&quot; said Ms Flaherty, adding that a broad and open societal debate is seriously needed as &quot;we&#39;re not just going to close down pornography&quot;.</p>
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	She admits the increasingly sexualised nature of society makes it an extremely difficult problem for parents and teachers today to monitor.</p>
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	&quot;Frankly it&#39;s not easy to protect from,&quot; Ms Flaherty added. Quoting the parent of a young victim of child-on-child sex abuse, she added: &quot;We teach our kids about stranger dangers but never think about warning them about other kids.&quot;</p>
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	The charity boss said the modern &quot;obsession&quot; with porn is having a huge impact on our children. &quot;Particularly with boys we would certainly think that porn is linked, it is a completely changed world, in terms of exposure, so it&#39;s a very big challenge,&quot; she said.</p>
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	Ms Flaherty also argued the country&#39;s child sex abuse victims - now up to 3,000 new allegations every year - are being &quot;failed on many fronts&quot; due to service cuts.</p>
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	She told the Sunday Independent: &quot;It&#39;s in the communities, it&#39;s in the schools and it&#39;s sometimes in families themselves where victims aren&#39;t heard. They are not being believed step one and there is a level of proof required that&#39;s almost impossible to achieve,&quot; she said, adding CARI has experienced huge service cuts in recent years.</p>
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	&quot;We have alerted the HSE to this growth in a problem that needs a solution and at the minute we have waiting lists,&quot; she said. At least 50 children - from all over the country - are awaiting access to CARI services in Dublin and Limerick.</p>
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	The new CARI data also reveals that 129 people - mostly mothers - contacted the therapy and counselling service about their young child&#39;s inappropriate or harmful &quot;sexualised behaviour&quot;.</p>
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	These include: pornographic interest; sexually explicit conversations; pulling another child&#39;s skirt up or pants down; petting and French kissing; preoccupation with masturbation; simulating foreplay with dolls or peers with clothes on. More serious examples include sexually explicit conversations with significant age difference; touching genitals of others; forcing exposure; simulating intercourse; and genital injury not explained by accidental cause.</p>
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	In response to the worrying growth in young cases with no history of sexual abuse, CARI developed a policy to work with children up to the age of 12 who are exhibiting sexually harmful behaviour. Children aged 13-17 are referred to other specialised units for adolescents. But this does not go far enough, according to the foundation, which is calling on schools, parents and the Government to &quot;seriously increase&quot; efforts.</p>
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	Ms Flaherty said: &quot;If you look at all the pop videos, they are practically simulating intercourse, children are learning to gyrate in a very sexual way from very young. Clothing and everything is so hyper-sexed, film in general is very open and then you get to accessing porn and that is extensive, there is no doubt.&quot;</p>
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	Although 97pc of primary schools and 98pc of post-primary schools in Ireland have Relationships and Sexuality Education programmes in place - dealing with a range of issues including pornography - exposure is &quot;just a step away&quot;.</p>
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	According to the Department of Education, 96pc of primary schools and 100pc of post-primary schools have centrally provided content filtering - through which access to pornography is blocked. &quot;All schools that accept a broadband service from the Department are required to confirm that they have an acceptable use policy in place,&quot; a spokesperson said.</p>
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	However, it is up to each school to determine how and when students access the internet and how they are supervised. Last May, an advisory group on Internet Content Governance made a series of recommendations on internet governance issues, including encouraging internet service providers to provide parental control products as part of their service.</p>
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	However, the Department of Communications admits it &quot;has never actively considered&quot; introducing a requirement for providers to block legal content, &quot;due to legal and operational reasons&quot;.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/porn-in-playground-fuels-rise-in-childonchild-sex-assaults-30973327.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/porn-in-playground-fuels-rise-in-childonchild-sex-assaults-30973327.html</a></p>
