TWO innovative youth initiatives were launched yesterday to help educate children as young as four about sexual abuse and to teach schoolchildren about their legal rights and encourage them to question the law.

Edinburgh's Rape Crisis Centre and the Young Women's Project in Dundee joined to create the wee VIP project and the teen VIP Project, the first abuse prevention programme created to appeal to children from pre-school to secondary school age.

Children from four to 17 are taught how to listen and respond to their Be Careful feelings by introducing them to the notion of abuse, demonstrating the situations in which it can occur and informing them of the places where they can turn to for help and advice.

The initiative was introduced to schools and nurseries in Dundee and Edinburgh after research conducted by the two groups last year found that more than 13% of the 1000 young people questioned aged between 13 and 18 had experienced sexual violence, while 28% of those over 16 had suffered some form of sexual assault.

The Young Citizens' Initiative was created by schools, councils, legal experts and police officers in Edinburgh to raise children's awareness of the law and to counter the often misleading impression of the legal system that they receive from the media.

The initiative will be officially launched in Edinburgh on June 4, during a conference opened by Lady Cosgrove, Scotland's first female High Court judge.