CHILDREN are obsessed with sex and parents are partly to blame, the Education Department says. Chief student discipline officer Ruth Lau Wing-mun said youngsters were having sexual relationships as a form of peer group support because parents were too busy to provide love. Speaking at a Unicef seminar at the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong, Ms Lau said the media were also to blame. She showed examples of a magazine story that spawned games in girls' schools in which students took off each other's underwear. She said explicit magazines and CD-ROMs were popular with pupils, highlighting the gap in values between children and parents. 'From the Education Department's point of view we look at sex education, not sex knowledge and skills, and this is what these youngsters are interested in,' she said. 'I don't think it's just a matter of lack of communication from parents but a breakdown of the family and general lack of support from parents who are just too busy.' A survey of 4,000 Form One to Form Seven students by the association found that 80 per cent started dating at Form Three or below, that one in 10 had experienced intercourse, and that the average age for the first sexual experience was 14.