"Oral sex has become the new kissing..."

That's the attitude that teachers in Tasmania are reporting overhearing in conversations of young "tween" children.

"The students are talking about what they have done on the weekend, sexual experiences that they are having," she said.

"Anecdotally it seems to be happening at earlier ages."  She said at a recent AEU forum, teachers had described what children in grade 4 and 5 talked about...

"It's easy, and you don't get pregnant."

The phenomenon is not totally new.  The New York Times reported about "rainbow parties" back in 2005.  Caitlin Flanagan wrote a long article about this for The Atlantic in 2006.  At that time she was writing about teenagers; from the Tasmanian reports, it appears to be working its way down to even younger children.