Sri Lankan children's views on sex and sexual exploitation
"An anonymous self completed questionnaire with 145 school children aged 13 to 17 years" from Sri Lanka.
"Do you think its OK for children your age to have done sexual things:"
| a) With Children your age? | |||
| b) With adults? | |||
| c) With adults for money? |
"Why do children do sexual things with adults:"
| a) For fun | |||
| d) Because they are forced to do so |
"Results: Ten percent of children said they had done sexual things, 8% with other children their age, 5% with adults, and 6% with adults for money (8% of children did not respond to this question). Most children felt it was not acceptable for children to do sexual things with adults. Children appeared to be strongly against the damage they felt it could do to children and their communities. Only a small proportion of children said they learnt about sex from school (12%) or their parents (10%). They had a number of misconceptions on AIDS and although a third had received teaching nearly half said they wanted teaching on it. Children had creative ideas on intervention but much of it focused on what adults could do to address the root causes of inadequate care of children. Children also felt that adults should be punished which contrasts with the police attitude which has been criticized for putting the blame on the child rather than the adult."
source: Research < "children don't do sex with adults for pleasure": Sri Lankan children's views on sex and sexual exploitation > by Glenn Michael Miles; www.boychat.org/messages/1476655.htm; Child Abuse & Neglect, 24 (7) 995-1003.; 2000