More than 5,000 children under the age of legal consent were diagnosed with sexual infections last year – and some of them were aged as young as 11.
Across the country 5,386 youngsters under the age of legal consent were treated for Chlamydia, gonorrhoea, herpes and other conditions.
In under a decade, the number of reported cases of children with sexually transmitted infections has more than doubled from just 2,474 in 2003.