A review of children’s files at one of the country’s main sexual abuse assessment units shows that in more than half of all cases, the children had been told not to tell of the abuse.

The repetitive interviewing of a child who is believed to have been sexually abused can cause confusion and contaminate the child’s story, according to experts speaking at a national conference yesterday.

One of the country’s main assessment units for children suspected of having been sexually abused is to track the possible role of social media after noticing a “trend” in the experiences of some victims.

Sexual offending is “a very serious problem”, Minister for Children Brian Lenihan tells the NOTA conference. Caroline O’Doherty reports.