Furthermore, there were just five cases of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia among Indigenous children aged under 12 in the Northern Territory in 2017. That was down from 19 cases in 2014. "The numbers [of STIs] in the under 12-year-olds, the numbers in the under 14-year-olds, have been falling since 2014," said Peter Markey, head of disease surveillance at the NT's Centre for Disease Control. "The numbers are low [and] they are decreasing in that age group." South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute associate professor James Ward, one of the country's leading researchers on Indigenous health, said children aged 14 or 15 were "most likely having consensual sex with their same age peers", rather than being abused. Associate Professor James Ward said it was not useful to draw a link between STI rates and sexual abuse. "They live in communities where STIs are endemic," he told Fairfax Media. "If you have sex when you're 14 or 15 in those communities, you’re very likely to acquire an STI."

Professor Ward, the former head of the Kirby Institute's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program, said it was "no surprise that young people in remote communities are having sex a little bit earlier". He did not seek to minimise the real issue of child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities, but stressed: "It is not useful to link STI rates to child sexual assault". Dr Markey would not comment on the asserted link but said: "Kids are having sexual encounters younger. With the amount of STI infections in Aboriginal communities, it is no surprise that they are getting infected. Our efforts now need to be concentrated into sexuality education." The Australian published statistics asserting a 180 per cent increase in underage STI notifications in 10 years, re-igniting debate about child welfare in the Top End. The newspaper quoted former NT minister John Elferink suggesting a state of emergency akin to "martial law" was necessary to successfully intervene against child abusers. But practitioners on the ground have disputed that analysis. Olga Havnen, chief executive of Danila Dilba Aboriginal Health Service, which provides care to about 80 per cent of greater Darwin's Indigenous population, said STI rates among young Indigenous people were "deeply concerning" but the vast majority were contracted "through consensual sexual relations".

"To conflate STIs and sexual abuse I think is completely misleading," Ms Havnen told ABC radio on Thursday. "People need to get a bit of a reality check on what’s actually happening here." Indigenous children were reportedly being diagnosed with syphilis at 60 times the rate of their non-Indigenous counterparts. While alarming, experts warned the numbers needed to be seen in the context of the syphilis outbreak affecting adult Indigenous communities in northern Australia. The outbreak started in north Queensland in 2011 and spread to the NT, the Kimberley and parts of South Australia. Responses are being led by the NT and federal governments. Loading Ms Havnen also identified entrenched poverty, overcrowding and binge drinking as factors that could contribute to poor sexual health, consensual underage sex and ultimately STI notifications.

Earlier this week, former NT children's commissioner Howard Bath told The Australian that STI rates were some of the best data available for assessing background levels of child sexual abuse, because the crime so often goes unreported. But speaking to Fairfax Media on Thursday, he cautioned the data was only "indicative", and the causes of rising STI rates were "very poorly understood". Comparisons with the non-Indigenous population were also dangerous because of the low baseline numbers involved, he said. "I think Olga [Havnen] is right on this particular point ... a significant proportion of the STI cases are likely to come from consensual activity between teenaged young people," Mr Bath said. "The difficulty is we just don’t know. I for one would not be going around saying 'this is what you need to be doing'.” At the same time, Mr Bath warned: "We just can’t sit back and explain it all away. They are very worrying data that need to be understood and looked at carefully."