‘Children of 11 having sex‘

Rochelle de Kock HERALD REPORTER

A SHOCKING report delivered at a conference in Nelson Mandela Bay yesterday revealed that an increasing number of South African children are sexually active.

LoveLife said at a three-day Eastern Cape correctional services conference on HIV/Aids that 10 per cent of 11-year-olds and 50% of 16-year-olds were engaging in sexual activity, and a large percentage of them were not practising safe sex.

Nondi Makhetha, LoveLife trainer in the Eastern Cape, said there were a number of factors that contributed to high-risk sexual behaviour in young people, including poverty, peer pressure, low self-esteem and poor education.

“Research shows young people are engaging in erratic behaviour by having sex at a very young age,” she said. “We found that one out of every 10 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 dies of HIV/Aids every day. They are not using condoms.”

Makhetha said 50% of 16-year- old boys were having sex with multiple partners, and some had admitted to having unprotected sex.

Counselling psychologist Elzabe Olivier said the problem was an indication that family systems were dysfunctional and that young people were searching desperately for love and acceptance.

“There‘s a definite need for acceptance and love at home, so they are looking for it elsewhere. And we are also finding that lots of children are victims of sexual abuse, therefore it‘s a case of learned behaviour and kids are doing what they‘ve seen,” said Olivier.

Young people having sex before they had become teenagers was an indication of a moral degeneration in society, in which older religious practices were no longer an important part of family life, she said. “The media is sending messages that it‘s okay for young people to have sex, so they‘re doing it.”

She said 11-year-olds were not cognitively developed and emotionally ready to make decisions about sex, and that having sex at a young age could be emotionally damaging.