Mar 12, 2019 | News, Opinion
The NSPCC has recently released figures showing that cases of online grooming are increasing. As a charity that supports children and young people at risk of and affected by sexual exploitation – including online grooming – these statistics, unfortunately, were not surprising.
The figures released show almost a 50% increase in offences recorded in the last six months compared to the same period in the previous year. They also show a 200% increase in the recorded instances of the use of Instagram to target and groom children.
Many of the young people we support have witnessed some form of grooming or exploitation online – from being befriended by strange adults posing as young people their age, to having indecent images of themselves shared across social media. We find that Snapchat tends to be the most significant platform for cases of online grooming with the young people we have supported, whilst 23% of cases of online grooming took place on Snapchat in the figures released by the NSPCC.
The figures demonstrate overwhelmingly, that we can’t rely on social networks to protect children and young people from grooming and exploitation online.
Following on from the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper in 2017, The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Home Office are soon to release an Online Harms White Paper with a response to tackling these issues. The white paper follows consultation with industry, charities and the public.
It is expected that the government response will include a binding code of practice and a statutory duty of care, as well as the requirement for transparent reporting by social media networks which we believe will go some way towards imposing a degree of responsibility for children’s safety on their platforms.
Whilst we understand the challenges such as the need to protect the human right to freedom of expression, we also know that the lack of regulation for social media networks in comparison to the regulations that exists in other areas of society with involvement in public safety is severely lacking and long overdue.
We would advise supporters to sign the NSPCC petition which calls on Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright to introduce:
• an independent regulator who can put in place mandatory child safety rules for social networks
• safe accounts for children
• detailed reporting on how social networks are keeping children safe.
We don’t believe the changes above need to compromise freedom of expression, but they will help to hold social networks accountable for safety measures on their platforms, which may go some way to cracking down on online grooming and sexual exploitation on social media.
Sign the petition
Mar 8, 2019 | News, Opinion
Last month, we shared our thoughts about the storyline in Emmerdale featuring female teacher Maya, who had been grooming her 16 year old stepson and student Jacob for months.
Earlier this week, soon after his 16th birthday, the ‘relationship’ became a physical one. Viewer feedback was that many were shocked by this and it has re-ignited the debate about grooming – demonstrating the power that popular television programmes hold in raising awareness of difficult issues amongst the wider public.
Whilst there was shock from some, there are still those who fail to recognise the situation of a female teacher grooming a young boy as being abusive.
Would words like ‘seducing’, for example, be used if the gender roles were reversed and Jacob was a teenage girl being groomed by an older male teacher?
Barnardo’s have been advising the Emmerdale production team on the storyline and have recently released what we feel are shocking statistics about these attitudes.
The survey conducted by YouGov found that more than a quarter (26%) of men who were presented with a variety of scenarios that have been shown in the Emmerdale storyline, said they would have found them more concerning if the perpetrator had been male and the teenage victim female.
‘Overall, one-in-five UK adults (20%) had this view and, of these, nearly two-thirds (64%) said it was because they think teenage girls are more vulnerable than teenage boys. More than a quarter (28%) thought it was every teenage boy’s dream to be with an older woman.’
How worrying that these attitudes still exist. The idea that boys aren’t as vulnerable or that the situation would be ‘exciting’ rather than abusive if a teenage boy was the one being groomed is likely leading to fewer boys disclosing their experiences or being identified as victims. Therefore, such attitudes could lead to many young boys not receiving the support they need.
For example, other research conducted by Barnardo’s last year found that boys were still missing out on support they would have received if they were girls because professionals are still failing to identify them as victims.
We are currently delivering awareness sessions across Derbyshire and part of this involves changing the public’s and young people’s perceptions that boys can also be victims of sexual exploitation.
The Emmerdale team have hinted that Maya will eventually be exposed and the story will also go on to show the impact that sexual abuse has on victims, their families and the wider community.
Many victims suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives and in cases with little evidence, their perpetrators are not always brought to justice either.
Finally, the storyline raises awareness of sexual exploitation perpetrated by people in positions of power and authority – stories that are not so often explored.
This type of perpetrator will have the trust of those around them and likely won’t fit our preconceived ideas about what a ‘typical’ perpetrator should look or act like.
Cases like these can lead to victims being overlooked and perpetrators remaining undetected. It is vitally important that we remember that without keeping an open-mind, we can allow perpetrators such as Maya who don’t ‘fit the mould’, to hide in plain sight.
Safe and Sound deliver free awareness sessions in Derby about child sexual exploitation, which cover issues such as grooming, online safety, consent and healthy relationships. To book a session for your school, class or community group please email us or call 01332 362120.
Mar 1, 2019 | News, Opinion
The Department for Education has released new draft statutory guidance for the introduction of compulsory health education and relationships and sex education (RSE) planned for next year.
The Department for Education (DfE) has released new draft statutory guidance last week to accompany the introduction of compulsory health education and relationships and sex education (RSE) planned for next year.
The government announced last year that health education would be compulsory along with relationships education in all primary schools and relationships and sex education (RSE) in all secondary schools when it is rolled out in 2020.
The new statutory guidance is aimed at governing bodies, proprietors, head teachers, principals, senior leadership teams and teachers and covers a range of issues relating to physical and mental health, wellbeing, safeguarding and healthy relationships.
From our experience, young people’s awareness and understanding of sex and healthy relationships can vary quite drastically, possibly due to the inconsistencies in education on these topics delivered in schools. A robust and well thought-through curriculum to ensure young people all receive the same standard of education across these vitally important areas is critical to ensure young people are well informed and have a good understanding of issues that can have a huge impact on their lives.
The new curriculum looks set to include awareness of consent, grooming, sexuality, online safety, sexting and mental health amongst others that can all be related to child sexual exploitation, a form of child sexual abuse.
We hope these long overdue changes will help play a vital role in increasing general confidence and self-esteem and empower young people in their decision-making as they become young adults. Whilst education does not prevent sexual exploitation or abuse, raising awareness can increase young people’s confidence in talking about traditionally uncomfortable or taboo subjects. It also signposts young people to where they can find support.
Safe and Sound will be looking at the curriculum carefully, however, and we would reiterate Rachel Krys, the co-director of the End Violence Against Women coalition’s concerns in the Guardian article School lessons to cover sexting, FGM and mental health on 25 February 2019 that:
“Reports of sexual violence and harassment in schools are increasing, but the DfE’s previous plans included worrying references to ‘virtues’, and suggested children be taught about resisting or managing peer pressure,” she said.
“That is a message which can easily be interpreted as teaching girls that it is their sole responsibility to keep themselves safe, ignoring the realities of harassment and abuse.”
Another aspect that is of concern with the revised guidance, is that parents can request to opt their child out of the ‘sex education’ part of the curriculum. Whilst we acknowledge that parents and carers are the prime educators of their children, we feel this could lead to further perpetuation of this disparity in knowledge. Experience shows that young people who do not attend these sessions are likely to look elsewhere for this knowledge, often from the internet where information may be incorrect, biased or not age appropriate.
We welcome the new guidance and plans for compulsory education on healthy relationships in all schools and look forward to further guidance from the DfE regarding training and support for those delivering these sessions.
Read the draft guidance
Feb 5, 2019 | News, Opinion
We’re supporting this year’s Safer Internet Day to raise awareness of some of the potential dangers that young people face online.
Safer Internet Day (Tuesday 5 February 2019) aims to encourage everyone to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively.
Unfortunately, there is still a growing prevalence of criminals using the internet to groom children and young people for their own purposes. We’re joining hundreds of organisations today across the world to raise awareness of internet safety and particularly to highlight the potential dangers faced by children and young people online.
Our specialist case workers are currently working with around 65 children and young people aged between ten and 18 across Derbyshire who have been victims of or who are at risk of sexual exploitation – more than half have experienced some form of grooming online.
This ranges from young people sharing personal information with strangers online to increasingly sinister activity such as being coerced into sharing inappropriate images of themselves and agreeing to meet up face to face.
Online grooming is a growing threat with the increasing use of social media. An online predator is likely to attempt to build a friendship with a young person, finding things in common with them or things they feel concerned about that they can confide in them – this is commonly the start of the grooming process (both offline and online).
It is sometimes very quick or even over a long period, but a perpetrator will build up this relationship and later use the vulnerabilities they had identified initially to exploit the young person.
For example, initial contact online can turn far more dangerous and overtly predatory – asking the young person to send inappropriate photos and webcam images or persuading them to meet up. By this point, however, a young person may feel they trust the person on the other end of their phone and be more likely to agree to these things.
We feel it’s important to explain that children and young people are never to blame for what happens to them online. Although it is important for young people to be vigilant about privacy settings and who they talk to online – it is always the other person who is wrong for making these inappropriate approaches and ultimately, anything more serious which comes from this.
We reinforce the message that young people will not be punished for what they have said or done online but will be listened to and will be taken seriously.
Any inappropriate online behaviour should be reported to the police or CEOP – The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command.
Our team at Safe and Sound works on a one-to-one basis with young people to help them recognise the dangers that the internet can pose to them and to better recognise the warning signs of grooming.
Our awareness sessions in local communities also highlight the importance of parents and carers ensuring that young people have privacy settings on all social media networks, mobile apps and games and where they can get support if they are worried.
Young people and their families can also contact Safe and Sound for advice and support.
To find out more about the online grooming experience of a young person we’ve worked with, you can read Olivia’s story here.
Olivia’s Story
Jan 31, 2019 | News, Opinion
Emmerdale’s ongoing teacher/pupil storyline helps raise awareness that boys are also victims of sexual exploitation.
Soaps are renowned for successfully tackling a wide range of issues and raising public awareness and understanding of subjects that can often be difficult to fully explain through other means. Soaps have sensitively dealt with hard-hitting subjects like mental health, domestic violence and increasingly, sexual exploitation.
The unfolding ‘Emmerdale’ plot about middle-aged teacher Maya who grooms her 15-year-old student and stepson Jacob, has shown the kind of control that female perpetrators of abuse can wield over boys too.
We are pleased that the soap is tackling the misconceptions that this form of abuse only affects girls and addressing the taboos that offenders can be women as well as men and from all walks of life. Showing Maya in a position of power and authority who abuses this when she targets and grooms Jacob also shows another side to sexual exploitation that isn’t often seen or understood. Maya does not seem like the stereotype of a perpetrator which is an important message for the public.
The storyline has brought about inappropriate comments online from people who have trivialised the storyline and still fail to understand that this is sexual exploitation – in just the same way as if a male teacher had groomed a female student. This shows that there is more to be done on tackling awareness and stigmas related to child sexual exploitation and abuse.
We hope, however, that bringing this to light will prompt more conversations about the potential dangers facing children and young people of all ages, genders, backgrounds, and cultures in our local communities.
Research by the NSPCC shows that one in 20 children experience sexual abuse – including sexual exploitation. However, as most sexual abuse is not reported or detected, it is difficult to assess the true scale of the issue. Whether it occurs online or in-person – perpetrators of grooming can be manipulative and controlling. They will exploit a young person’s vulnerability and coerce them into sexual acts and can potentially scar them emotionally and physically for the rest of their lives.
The grooming process is often complex; so much so, that many young people don’t at first realise they have been groomed and are actually are risk of serious sexual abuse. Because of this, many feel responsible for what happens to them.
Safe and Sound’s specialist support team has worked with hundreds of young people across Derbyshire to enable them to come to terms with their experiences so that they are no longer trapped or defined by them.
We are currently looking to develop innovative and effective information and education programmes to raise awareness amongst the public and professionals of the issues, the warning signs and the support available here in Derbyshire.
To find out more about what you can do to help us tackle these issues, please find out more.
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