TOP STORY: Soaring kids' sex activity alarms

Western Bay children as young as four are engaging in adult sexual behaviour in the playground.
Tauranga Help - the Western Bay's only sexual abuse, counselling and education centre - has documented a 400 per cent increase in incidents in the past six months.
The disturbing behaviour ranges from pulling down pants to sex acts.
A number of playcentres are planning workshops with young children about the issue, while primary school principals are also seeking advice on what to do.
Tauranga Help receives an average one call a week about inappropriate sexual behaviour from concerned parents, community agencies and preschool employees. This compares with one a month six months ago.
"People usually call saying a child is 'acting out'. They suspect it's not appropriate," said centre manager Min Kruze.
Tauranga Help wants to introduce awareness and prevention programmes into schools, as research shows early detection often prevents more serious offending later in life.
"If children who are acting out are picked up under the age of 12 and given therapy, there is a very high success rate," said centre facilitator Toni Ashmore.
She urged parents to contact the centre with any concerns about their child's behaviour and assured complete confidentiality. Individual and group counselling was offered.
Tauranga child psycho-therapist Augustina Driessen has worked in the field for 30 years and warned it was important to distinguish between a child's sexual curiosity and abnormal behaviour. "Sometimes we mistake what is actually happening."
Abnormal behaviour could be divided into two categories - children who were victims of sexual abuse imitating the behaviour and unexposed children drawn in by sexual abuse victims.
Mrs Driessen backed programmes in schools: "It needs to be addressed."
The Western Bay Playcentre Association, a parent co-operative, is taking action. It is allowing Tauranga Help to run workshops with its three and four-year-olds - on a broad range of topics, including appropriate sexual behaviour.
Special needs officer Sue Rashleigh said the problem had not been apparent at their centres but staff knew it existed.
"It's about education and prevention and protection really. As parents we are the educators of our children."
Merivale School principal Delcie Martin confirmed adult sexual behaviour went on in schools. "Sadly, it's there and it's there way more than the average person in the street would realise.
"It's something that really has to be dealt with. We don't want to breed adults who don't have any respect for their own bodies and others," she said.
Te Akau Ki Papamoa School principal Ash Maindonald was exposed to the issue while teaching in West Auckland but did not have any current cases at his school.
However, he recently addressed the matter at a staff meeting to prepare his first-year teachers.
Mr Maindonald told staff if they heard children using language or discussing topics that demonstrated the child was overly sexually aware or active - the school needed to know about it.
Another Bay primary school principal, who did not want to be named, was also aware of the issue.
"Oh yeah, it's a biggy. At other schools I'm acquainted with it has manifested itself in all sorts of ways," he said.
Primary Principals Association president and Otumoetai Intermediate principal Henk Popping has asked Tauranga Help staff to speak at the next "principals catch-up day" on July 28.
"I have asked them to ... talk about the concerns they have seen - to strengthen what we are doing in our health programmes."
Child Youth and Family's family therapist for Bay of Plenty, Tony Palairet, said the issue of children "acting out" had always been there but there was a "reluctance in society as a whole to accept it".
However, it needed to be carefully addressed, he said. "A very thorough assessment needs to be done to determine whether behaviour is normal or otherwise.
"If a kids are displaying sexual behaviour and you walk in on them and it is light-hearted and there is no anxiety ... just like 'oh mum!' ... then it's probably nothing."
Police Child Abuse Team member Detective Sergeant Eddie Lyttle confirmed the issue existed but said it was largely a CYF matter. He had worked with children who displayed sexualised behaviour with other young children after being abused themselves but warned not to assume a causal link.
He welcomed public awareness about the issue. "It has got to be a good thing, if done in the right manner".
Mr Lyttle said the responsibility lay with parents, not schools, in addressing the problem. "Arm parents with information so they can deal with it, rather than sweeping it under the carpet."
Tauranga Help suspects most parents are too scared to come forward and seek advice about whether their child has a problem. Ms Kruze said parents worried about government agencies getting involved and the stigma that might be attached to the family. '
The crisis centre offers confidential individual and group counselling for those involved with sexual abuse and assault. It also provides an abuse awareness and prevention education service.