Under-16s sex 'not a subject for police'

By ALAN PERROTT

Illegal sex among under-16s is relatively uncommon and should not become a criminal matter, say experts.

The Herald spoke yesterday to a school principal, a police youth aid officer and a health worker about the extent of the problem.

Gary Sweeney, head of the Intermediate and Middle School Association and principal of Pukekohe Intermediate, said he had no doubt students as young as 12 years had experimented with sex, but it had never been viewed as a serious issue.

"[Pre-teen sex] has never been raised with me either by staff, kids or parents. However, that doesn't mean it isn't happening. Kids will experiment with all sorts of things and sex is just like cigarettes and other naughty things."

But Mr Sweeney said any instances should be dealt with through education and counselling rather than by involving police.

An education ministry spokeswoman said there were no set policies governing how schools should deal with underage sex.

Schools could set their own policy, she said, but each had people such as public health nurses and guidance counsellors to provide support. The police were not necessarily informed.

The ministry website recommends teaching students about sex education before the onset of sexual activity.

Under points to remember, the website says: "Keeping young people ignorant about their sexuality does not insure against sexual activity because lack of information makes them vulnerable to misinformation."

A research project conducted in 1991 found 95 per cent of 231 students surveyed had already experienced sexual intercourse.

More than 50 per cent said they had sex before turning 16.

Another project, in 1995 of 1802 Northland students, found 21 per cent had been forced into unwanted sexual activity.

But some educators are wary that such statistics may worsen if there is any liberalising of sexual prohibitions on under-16s.

Chris France, national president of the School Trustees Association, would oppose any legislation which could permit sexual contact between youths.

He was surprised by the proposal to decriminalise sex between youths aged between 12 and 16 years as long as the partners were aged within two years of each other.

"We would oppose it for the same reasons that we would oppose decriminalisation of marijuana: any patina of justification just makes our work that much more difficult.

"Our job is to educate and not to monitor the quality of our students' moral lives."

Mr France said the association had no general guidelines for how schools should respond if they discovered sexual relationships between students.

He accepted some students under 16 did have sex with each other, but claimed creating legal exceptions where such practices might be accepted would "erode a moral pattern that most of the population finds appropriate".

Detective Sergeant Darrell Harpur, head of the South Auckland Child Abuse Unit, said complaints over sex among pre- and early teenage youths were rarely reported.

He did not think that liberalising sexual consent laws would have any impact on case numbers.

While all complaints were investigated, Mr Harpur said no criminal action could be taken against under-14-year-olds.

Margie Fepuleai, general manager of South Auckland Health's Pacific Health unit, said sexual activity involving under-16s might be illegal, but police would be informed only as a last resort or if a serious crime had been committed.

Age of consent

USA 16 to 18

Australia 16 to 17

Britain 16

New Zealand 16

France, Denmark 15

Canada, Italy 14

Japan, Spain 13

Mexico 12