Adults who breed sectarianism in children within Northern Ireland's divided society are involved in a form of child abuse, the Secretary of State, Mr John Reid said tonight.
His comments came following the publication of an Ulster University study into community divisions which found that they were having a profound effect on children and that 15 per cent of six-year-olds were making sectarian comments.
Dr Reid, officially opening new premises for an integrated school for Catholic and Protestant children in south Belfast, said the report was "deeply depressing".
"Adults who encourage sectarianism amongst children, who breed bitterness and hatred from generation to generation are involved in a form of child abuse," he added.
"If there are some areas in Northern Ireland where we have children being brought up with the bitterness that some adults feel incapable of putting aside, who are involved in rioting in the streets, that is not only a disadvantage, but it is abusing the future generations of Northern Ireland."
During the ceremony at the Carnmore Integrated Primary School children sang "Look to the Future" - a song written by one of the teachers for the Secretary of State to mark the occasion.
The University of Ulster study revealed that Catholic children aged just three were twice as likely to have formed a dislike of the police in Northern Ireland compared with Protestant infants.
Dr Paul Connolly, one of the researchers, said the two religions being educated separately had a bearing on the findings.
"It certainly raises important questions about the indirect effects that our segregated school system is having on the development of young children's attitudes," he said.
For the survey, 352 children across Northern Ireland were questioned. Other key findings among three-year-olds included Protestant children being twice as likely as their Catholic peers to prefer the Union Jack to the Tricolour.
By the age of six, a third of children questioned had identified with one of the two main communities.
Among the comments made to the study team, one six-year-old Catholic girl said: "They're Protestants and they're bad because they want to kill Catholics."
A Protestant girl aged four was quoted as saying: "Catholics are the same as masked men, they smash windows."
PA