Gender and exploitation: Youth voice insights

• Online grooming, peer pressure, and cultural expectations shape how and why boys might be more vulnerable to specific types of exploitation. 
• Girls are often taught or conditioned to expect unwanted sexual advances from boys and men, and to feel responsible for preventing them. 
• Male exploiters may pass on harmful views about power and masculinity to the next generation; boys who experience exploitation and are left without support may be at a higher risk of perpetrating similar harm themselves. 

Some people think girls are asking for it, and that girls are only there for the pleasure of men.

• Professionals, including teachers and police, may not recognise girls as victims of criminal exploitation. This lack of recognition is used by perpetrators to exploit girls to move drugs, weapons, or messages unnoticed.  
• Victim-blaming narratives can discourage girls from reporting sexual exploitation. Fears of being blamed, disbelieved or labelled as a ‘slut’ make it hard to tell friends or trust professionals and services.  
• Boys are less likely to disclose sexual abuse due to shame, embarrassment, and fear of being judged.    

Boys might need more support to open up, because people have grown up saying boys shouldn’t show emotion.

• The intersection between neurodiversity and non-binary and trans identities creates additional barriers to accessing support, and an increased risk for young people of this demographic to experience discrimination.
• Fear of being misgendered or misunderstood could create barriers to young people accessing support or making disclosures.
• Online spaces can be a vital source of support for trans young people but also pose risks and expose them to negativity and judgement. 

... not everyone is as accepting of others, and services might not understand non-binary young people.

• Educational content often presents the narrative that boys are only victims of criminal exploitation and girls only victims of sexual exploitation. It also encourages young people to perceive girls as victims and boys as perpetrators.
• Topics like sexual abuse and consent are oversimplified and minimised by not speaking about the issue directly (young people gave the specific example of the ‘tea’ video as evidence of this).
• Gendered stereotypes are reinforced at school, including that anger and aggressive behaviour from boys equates to affection (for example, if a boy hits you or teases you, he likes you).  

They talk about sexual consent, but they don’t tell us what to do if we are being groomed or sexually abused.