Health trusts across Northern Ireland referred 231 young people after they exhibited harmful sexualised behaviours during 2024 and 2025. These behaviours involve developmentally inappropriate sexual actions by children that harm or abuse others, including peer-on-peer cases.

A mother described the severe effects on her son following sexual abuse by a peer. She stated that he faces extreme trauma and stress, with his life changed forever. The family sought counselling, and both parents required mediation for anxiety along with medication for sleep.

The mother noted that parents often focus discussions on risks from adults, not friends. She called for greater awareness of peer-on-peer abuse.

Marcella Leonard, an independent social worker, stated that sex education in Northern Ireland requires improvement. She said politicians should address its ties to religion. Leonard pointed to factors like prior abuse experiences, neurodiversity, or deliberate harmful intent behind such behaviours.

Leonard attributed rising reports to greater confidence among youth in speaking out, alongside social media influences such as coerced image sharing or AI alterations. She stressed that education helps many children, though some need extended support.

Every grant-aided school in Northern Ireland must teach relationships and sex education, with content set by each school's policy developed alongside parents and pupils. The Department of Education requires programmes to cover harmful behaviours and peer-on-peer abuse reporting.

Police last month examined AI-generated explicit images at a school in Armagh.