By Shuli Sudderuddin

In 2004, Ms Sheena Jebal counselled a sexually active 10-year-old girl.

'Back then, she didn't know what she was doing. But now, youth as young as 10 to 12, they know what they are doing,' said Ms Sheena, a counsellor at Nulife Care and Counselling Services in Ang Mo Kio.

She is not alone in detecting a trend of pre-teens engaging in sex. The numbers are still very small, say counsellors, but the trend appears to be rising.

What is striking is how the children were clued in about sex through what they saw online. Interestingly, too, the cases involve children of both genders and not the more common young girl-adult male combination.

Dr Carol Balhetchet, director of youth services at the Singapore Children's Society, has seen three cases of sexually active children aged between 11 and 13 this year.

Such cases were rare before, she said, noting that the trend became more visible last year.

The issue was highlighted last week when the Community Court heard the case of an 11-year-old girl who had sex with a 16-year-old boy last year.

They met after chatting on the Internet. She told him that she was 12 and in Primary 6, and they split up after two weeks as the girl felt they had begun to drift apart.

The girl, now 13, is believed to have had sex with a second boyfriend, who was then 16. The first boy, now 17, has been put on probation.

Sex with a minor under 14 is punishable with a jail term which may extend to 20 years, along with a fine or caning. The penalty for having sex with a girl under 16 is up to five years' jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Associate Professor Munidasa Winslow, a specialist in psychiatry at Raffles Hospital, estimates there has been a 50 per cent increase over the last 20 years in the number of patients who report becoming sexually active at 14 and below.

Two years ago, a lifestyle survey he did of students between Secondary 1 and 3 showed that about 60 out of 1,000 students were having sex.

Why are they starting so young?

Said Dr Balhetchet: 'A lot of it has got to do with youths' exposure to various media that suggest that expressing sexuality is something they should be comfortable with.

'Combined with a lack of adult supervision and boredom, one thing will lead to another.'

Said Prof Winslow: 'Teenagers find a thrill in obtaining and watching pornography and with the Internet, they are far more sexualised now.'

Indeed, Ms Sheena now sees many young girls besotted with the idea of being in love because of influences from the mass media and peer pressure.

'They will just copy what they see others do, like holding hands or kissing in public,' she said.

Of the three cases that Dr Balhetchet saw this year, one involved two 12-year-olds - a boy and a girl - who had visited a pornography website.