Trigger Warning:
This article contains a description of an episode of collective sexual harassment perpetrated by children against a girl of primary school age. It may be triggering for individuals who have experienced sexual violence or childhood abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
Author's Note:
All names are fictitious. This account is based on a personal memory of mine from when I was 5 years old. It does not seek to identify or expose any real individual, but rather to reflect on social, educational, and cultural patterns that allow such behaviours to take root from childhood. The aim is to contribute to the debate on comprehensive sex education, early exposure to adult content, and the amplified risks posed by current technology.
The Memory
When I was five years old, my family moved to a more troubled suburb on the boundary between the established city and areas of greater deprivation. I started first grade a year younger than most of my classmates—a year that, at that age, makes a vast difference in maturity and worldly knowledge.
The class had about 40 children and only one teacher, who frequently left the classroom. During those absences, especially the longer ones, a “game” would begin that I, being so young and coming from a different background, did not understand at all.
The boys in the group (all the males except me) would surround Daniela, a girl who stood out for being fairer-skinned, blonde, and with clear honey-coloured eyes. It was not the typical skirt-lifting that is sometimes dismissed as childish mischief. It was worse.
They would swarm over her, stroking her face and legs, trying to open her blazer and lift her skirt. Daniela would lose her balance while attempting to defend herself and end up on the floor. They kissed her cheeks and neck, touched everything they could reach, and took advantage to touch areas that no child should ever touch at that age. She cried. The other girls watched in silence, without intervening. I stood frozen, unable to comprehend what was happening.
The chant was unanimous and repeated:
**“Rape Daniela! Rape Daniela!”**
These were children from homes lacking emotional and economic stability, with limited but real access to adult or risqué content at home (perhaps not explicit pornography, but certainly films or conversations inappropriate for their age).
I myself had been exposed early: by age five I was already masturbating without knowing what it was, and by seven I had wet dreams without understanding them. My father (an uneducated man who simply wanted to relax in front of the TV) was not careful about what I saw at home. Yet I never joined in that “game”. I never crossed that line.
Reflection: What That “Game” Really Was
What happened was not childish horseplay. It was **collective sexual harassment** carried out by minors against a girl, with clear elements of violence, objectification, and pack dynamics. The fact that the perpetrators were children does not make it any less serious: it reveals how deeply they had already internalised, at that age, the notion that a female body (especially that of a girl perceived as “different” or “desirable”) could be taken by force as a form of amusement or domination.
The absence of adult supervision and any form of sex education allowed those children to import patterns seen at home or in the media and reproduce them unchecked. The cry “Rape Daniela!” was not metaphorical: it literally expressed the fantasy of rape as something collective and thrilling.
The Echo in the Present Day
If in the late 1990s or early 2000s, with limited access to adult content, a group of primary school children was already capable of organising structured group sexual harassment… what can we expect today?
Today, children and pre-teens have the entire universe of free pornography in their pocket with a single click. Algorithms that push ever more extreme and violent content. The normalisation of “rape” as a fetish in much of mainstream porn. And, on top of that, artificial intelligence tools that allow the creation of personalised deepfakes of anyone: classmates, neighbours, teachers (the so-called “Grok fakes” or similar trends we have critiqued on this blog).
Early exposure is not new. What is new is its scale, immediacy, and hyperrealism. Without comprehensive sex education that teaches consent, respect, and the distinction between fantasy and reality (as occurs in the Nordic model we have analysed here), such exposure becomes a breeding ground for behaviours that start as “games” and end as lifelong patterns of abuse.
Where We Are Headed
This testimony seeks neither revenge nor exposure. It aims to highlight that these dynamics are not “just kids being kids” nor harmless anecdotes. They are the seeds of a culture that normalises sexual violence from childhood.
The solution lies in:
- Early, compulsory, and high-quality sex education that includes consent, empathy, and critical media analysis.
- Genuine supervision and teacher training to detect and intervene in harassment dynamics.
- Ethical regulation of pornographic platforms and generative AI tools (robust age verification, blocking of non-consensual deepfakes).
- Open dialogue that dismantles stigma and fosters solidarity, rather than hierarchies of “respectability” within sexuality itself.
For if we do not intervene at the root, more “Danielas” will continue to appear—in primary school classrooms or in viral trends on X.
International Support Resources
- RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline (confidential, 24/7, English and Spanish): +1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or online chat at rainn.org
- Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline (support for child abuse concerns, multilingual): +1-800-422-4453 or childhelphotline.org
- NO MORE Global Directory (international directory of helplines for sexual and domestic violence): nomoredirectory.org
- Hot Peach Pages (global directory of abuse hotlines and organisations in over 110 languages): hotpeachpages.net
If this piece resonated with you or you have a similar experience you wish to share (anonymously or otherwise), the comments are open.