I have also come across something similar where one of the children involved admitted to something when not even understanding what it meant because he had been told to do so to protect someone else.
The situation was resolved and thankfully the case never made the press so the anonymity of a gullible but innocent party was protected.

I think one of the problems is also that sex has been devalued and is no longer a gift to be shared between two people but something to be dragged to the lowest depths .
I caught the first few moments of a new comedy programme on TV (Friday C4) the other night while waiting for the DVD to come on and was shocked at the whole attitude that the program portrayed about sex.

There is also a tendency for some people to dress little girls as miniature women , I think this is very sad and children should be encouraged to behave and dress as children not adults. Childhood lasts for such a short time anyway, there is plenty of time to be grown up when a child is over 16.

I am sorry the story about the little boy ever made the headlines, it is not the sort of thing any child should carry with them into adulthood.

I have had far from a stable upbringing and have never felt the need to sleep around! I have never done it and don't intend to either!

I have my own mind (as everyone does) and have the common sense to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong.

Part of this is, I think, is down to the type of individual you are as well as the upbringing you have had.

True, and the type of person you are can make a difference as to how you cope with and define unstability.
Children can grow up without having boundaries defined. It's nothing to do with common sense.

In my case I would say the fact that I've not went off the rails is partly do with common sense and the realisation of what's right and wrong.

Being battered day in day out by an abusive mother, kept off school because I was 'unwell' when really I wasn't, I was more visibly bruised from the beatings. Going to school with no money, so unable to eat at school, and what money my grandparents gave me was taken off my by mother at the threat of her hand. Being surrounded by drugs and alchohol. During the summer holidays being cooped in the house a lot of the time and warned to keep the door locked and not to go out. The days I got out to play was when I was with my grandparents at weekends. Dreading the thought of going home on the Sunday night to yet another week of misery.

I still remember the unbearable headaches and hand prints to this day.

Yes, I would define that as an unstable upbringing.

My grandparents didn't know the half of it for a long time, though knew some of what went on. When they sought advice, they told my grandparents that I would probably be taken in to care, and they didn't want that. They wish they had faught for custody now.

I wasn't implying you didn't have an unstable background and you have done well to come through that but there are different ways children are affected.
Maybe this young girl was exposed to sexually explicit material, maybe she was abused, maybe she saw one or more of her parents or family sleeping around.
We won't know, but we can't say she doesn't have common sense she just has a different common sense....... which it seems to me is looking for attention and affection from anyone, ie boys.

Yeah, you're probably right as you'd know better than I would. My mother had few partners in her time, but thank god I realised that wasn't the way to be.

I think the thing is, some people become an introvert or an Extravert {thought there are many more dimentions to it than that} you became withdrawn in your situation, where as this young girl seems to have gone the other way,

Exactly! and I don't think I know better just think it's too easy to judge sometimes. You'll never get all the facts in the papers.

When I was living in a deprived area Up North I was staggered to find that whole generations had been jobless and had just given up - so their children had been brought up with no working relatives. The girls knew the only way to get a council house was to have a baby, and thereby jump the queue. So those youngsters who weren`t blest with a great brain or a particular drive were doomed to continue the vicious cycle. It is really difficult to see your way out of a situation like that when you know nothing else.

I think you did well to know right from wrong, and should give yourself a pat on the back.

Some children though mimick what is dished out to them, ie., a alcoholic parent, a drug addicted parent, numerous uncles or aunties, filthy living conditions, beatings, domestic abuse etc., some children think it is the ''norm'' for instance a 9 year old being the adult, sorting out letters from authorities, phoning on parents behalf, sorting out the shopping, picking Mom up from the floor in a coma state and putting her to bed, doing thier own cooking from the age of 4, looking after siblings, sorting them out for school, and growing up to thinking that this is the normal thing. Unfortunately then doing the same to thier kids and repeating what thier parents showed them. (that is actual fact from a child I dealt with)

For instance Patrick grew up with a Alcoholic father, he watched him beat the Mom to a pult for a miserable £2, he and his 7 siblings sat in a bedroom all day with 4 pieces of bread, all sharing two beds between them, he saw his father come home with different woman....drunks like himself....but the rage and anger over his Mom trying to get the woman/women out spilt over to the kids being dragged around like rag dolls.
As the kids grew up Patrick swore that he would only drink a couple of shandies a time if out with the lads and never lay a hand on his kids or partner, which he stuck too. Two of his other brothers drank like fish and battered thier kids and wives. The other brother almost had a mental breakdown, the girls two came out of it fairly good and have made a success of thier lives, the other is a man hater. Everyone deals with things differently, some of us, like yourself, realise that what happened is wrong, others feel thats the way life should be, other try to stay away in the shadows of life and become shy and some become load and extrovert.
I think it has to be remember the girl is but a child herself still, so I for one hope that she can get sorted and educated. I am sure in time we will hear more about the ''case history'' of the family my only hope is that the baby is safe and the cycle is broken with her.