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HIV alert over teenage sex craze
By David Harding, Metro Last updated at 00:00am on 28.04.05Growing numbers of teenagers are taking part in a new group sex craze known as 'daisy chaining', nurses warned yesterday.
The practice involves children having sex with several partners at parties.
School health workers told the Royal College of Nursing's annual conference that they were becoming aware of the phenomenon.
Judy McRae, a sexual health nurse in London, said: 'Colleagues are coming across reports of groups of young people having sex in large groups.
'As we understand it, it involves groups of older teenagers going round to each other's homes and having sex in a similar way as swinging.'
Charities warned that the practice could lead to a rise in young people contracting sexually-transmitted diseases.
'Risky sexual practices like these are the surest way to spread sexually transmitted infections such as HIV,' said a spokesman for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
'It is very worrying that young people are putting themselves at risk in this way.'
Kathy French, a sexual health adviser with the RCN, said there was pressure on boys from friends to become sexually active.
'The young boys are having problems competing with their peers because girls go for older boys.'
The conference, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, also highlighted the case of a 14-yearoldboy who became infected with HIV through unprotected sex.
When the boy was told he had the virus, he claimed he could not have caught HIV as it 'only happens to older people', delegates were told.
