Purpose of the information booklet

Home: Family & Friends: About Your Child: Age appropriate sexual behaviour

We know that if concerning sexual behaviours are not responded to early, problems may emerge in children and young people's sexual development. We also know that some children and young people are more at risk of developing concerning sexual behaviours.

What constitutes age appropriate sexual behaviour is a challenging area for all carers and professionals working with children¹ and young people². This booklet can assist carers³ and professionals who work with children⁴ by providing some of the information they need to understand the differences between sexual behaviour that is part of the normal growing up process, and sexual behaviours that are concerning.

It is important for all people who come in contact with children and young people to know about normal or age appropriate sexual behaviours. The purpose of this booklet is to provide carers and professionals who work with children with enough information to make an initial judgment about whether to be concerned about a child or young person's sexual behaviour. This should enable them to determine if further professional advice is required and who to contact if they need to talk to someone.

We know that if concerning sexual behaviours are not responded to early, problems may emerge in children and young people's sexual development. We also know that some children and young people are more at risk of developing concerning sexual behaviours.

It is important to acknowledge that children and young people develop sexually, just as they do emotionally, mentally and physically. There is a range of normal, age appropriate sexual behaviour that changes as a child or young person grows and develops. Most of the sexual behaviour displayed by children and young people will be within a normal range. The challenge is to identify sexual behaviours that fall outside this range and then seek help for that child or young person. This booklet describes age appropriate sexual behaviours, as well as concerning sexual behaviours, in children and young people.

Explicit videos and Internet pornography pose new challenges creating a generation of children and young people 'over stimulated' by these media who can potentially become sexually abusive or aggressive if left without appropriate adult supervision.

In evaluating these behaviours, it is important for carers and professionals to consider their own values about the sexuality of children and young people. There have been many changes over the past 20 years in mainstream Western attitudes towards sex and, as a result, some children and young people are increasingly exposed to sexual themes in their home, amongst their peers and in the media. This is different to the environments in which many carers and others grew up.

To make decisions about what is age appropriate or concerning sexual behaviour, it is useful to refer to this information booklet rather than rely solely on assumptions based on personal experience or values. This booklet is intended to help to provide an objective evaluation to assist in forming a judgement.

There are many influences on children and young people's sexual behaviour. Not all problem sexual behaviour stems from sexual abuse. Age appropriate sexual behaviours can become disrupted in children and young people for a number of reasons. These can include:

• over exposure to adult sexual activity;
• exposure to sexually explicit material such as Internet pornography and explicit videos;
• physical abuse and emotional neglect.

1. Children - children aged 0 - 12 years of age;
2. Young people - people aged 13 - 18 years of age;
3. Carers - foster carers, residential care workers, group home parents;
4. Professionals - child-care workers, pre-school teachers, primary school teachers, educators, community health workers, maternal and child health nurses, school counsellors, family day carers, out of hours school care coordinators, social workers, counsellors and welfare workers.

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Disclaimer Copyright Updated: 30 Nov 2010