Rise in young seeking help over peer sex abuse

The number of children seeking counselling over sex abuse suffered at the hands of other children has soared by a third in the space of a year.

Childline held 3,878 counselling sessions with young people last year, up 29per cent on 2016. The true scale could be “much worse”, it said, as “many children and teenagers did not understand that what had happened to them was abuse.

“Young people who contacted Childline about peer-on-peer sexual abuse revealed a lack of understanding about consent, with some feeling unsure about whether something is abuse if they are in a relationship,” a spokesman added.