"Tell us who we can be, not who we shouldn't be." Youth voice insights into education on exploitation

This report is published alongside a best practice guide on delivering education to children and young people on child exploitation, county lines and related crime. The resource is available here.

The Prevention programme

The Children’s Society’s national Prevention programme was established in 2019 and is commissioned by the Home Office. The programme works to drive improvements in the prevention and disruption of child sexual abuse (CSA) and exploitation (CSE), child criminal exploitation (CCE), and modern slavery on a regional and national basis across England and Wales. With expertise on the lived experiences of children, current and emerging forms of child exploitation, and effective approaches to improving victim identification and support, the programme has built a reputable profile recognised across law enforcement, child protection, healthcare, and the private sector. We work with thousands of professionals across these sectors each year to tackle child exploitation. 

The programme also leads the award winning #LookCloser campaign, focused on supporting the public and businesses to spot child exploitation and take action to get them help. 

The programme works closely with multi-agency partners across sectors and regions to ensure we are guided by the latest developments and intelligence. Drawing on evidence from direct practice, youth voice consultations, and emerging strategic insight, the programme is an agile resource that enables partners to develop and take ownership of new approaches to preventing child exploitation and abuse.

Because you share your personal stories, if you have the same person coming back multiple times you might feel more comfortable.

"When the funding was there, they were stationed at school. They built relationships with schools. For relationships to be effective, it needs to be repetitive or consistent, so you know they are reliable. You know them, so you trust them."

• Some young people reported feeling on edge, overwhelmed or scared in the presence of uniformed police officers. While some young people felt that a uniform provides a sense of ‘authority’ and can create respect among young people, most reported finding it a barrier and felt that if officers are attending schools, they should be in plain clothes. 
• Young people want to know in advance who is coming, why, and what for.

"A boy in my class, his dad was a police officer. We saw him at sports day and places like that. We had a positive relationship with him. We saw him as a person outside of his uniform."

The child’s background is important – their experiences of police matters. Police officers need to explain who they are, what they are there for, what they are going to be talking about. A lot of young people have trauma related to the police.

“It’s hard for me to communicate with the police because of my understanding of how they behave. We’re taught they’re trying to ‘get us’ . They’re trying to imprison us, not help us."

“If someone feels overwhelmed or intimidated by the officer being there, it would affect how they act. They might be conscious of what they’re saying. They would sense it, act a certain way and wouldn’t feel comfortable.”

“In my Pupil Referral Unit, appropriate adults came in, instead of police. Other young people knew who they were, they knew the service and had had a positive experience. They were around the area, they saw them. We had built trust and a relationship with them. After their sessions, disclosures happened, because we knew them.“

• Police are not always best placed to deliver educational content on exploitation. Some young people felt that they may be more likely to engage with teachers, youth workers, or other trusted adults. This can be due to mistrust in police, and perceptions of which professionals‘ safeguard’ and which professionals ‘criminalise’.

First of all I don’t think it should be done by the police. You have no relationship with the police and in some areas young people don’t trust the police. I think it should be a teacher because they have a relationship with you.

“Seeing a county lines video could trigger certain behaviours, you might go to your next class and ‘act out’ because you are triggered’. Teachers should be sympathetic and understanding. ”

Environment and community context

What are young people telling us?

• Police must understand the community, local dynamics, and young people’s perspectives. Content should be relevant and relatable to the young people it is being delivered to.
• Young people don’t want police acting like they “know more” than them about their own area. In some communities, police presence could reinforce“ us v them” dynamics.
• Young people in alternative provisions, hospital schools, and who are home schooled should also receive educational content on exploitation.

What accommodations are made for children outside of school? It’s kind of like survivorship bias. A lot of kids who would be exploited are not likely to be in school.

"Young people know the secrets of the areas they live, so police shouldn’t act like they know more than us.”

“Police need to adapt their approach based on the young people’s needs. They should understand the individuals and the areas they live in.”

Being able to relate to an area is important. They need different videos for different areas.

Some young people are mentally wired to do positive things, some aren’t. Some don’t believe they can do anything. Police and teachers need to do the work to rewire us. Don’t tell us you’re trying to stop us making mistakes. People already believe they’re going to fail because of the environment they come from. You have to help us find our value, purpose. Our meaning.

“If you are living through poverty, parents with addictions, and police come to your school and say ‘don’t do this’ it would have an adverse effect and further marginalise you.”

“If someone’s going through it (exploitation) don’t make them feel like they’re in the wrong, like in the video the boy seemed like he was in the wrong, if you were being exploited this would stop you telling anyone.”

I feel like the presentation puts a lot of pressure on the child. If they realise that this is what is happening to them, they are expected to do something about it.

• All delivery should centre around what support is available to young people, and reassure them that they will not be judged or criminalised for making disclosures.
• Content should focus on what support pathways are available for young people.
• Messaging should emphasise empowerment, protection, and trusted relationships, not morality. Messaging encouraging young people to “be fearless” implies that there is something wrong with being afraid, or that they won ’t get support if they are scared.

“Young people need to know, they can be more than their pain, they can do something through their pain. I didn’t understand that I could become something good until I was told I could be. If police communicate that young people can become something, they stop being the enemy.”

“When police make out that we get involved with county lines for money or for clothes, it undermines the real reasons like poverty or because we don’t have a choice.”

Police should remember that county lines or gangs gives people a sense of purpose, and our lives a feeling of meaning. You should be telling us what is our alternative meaning. Tell us who we can be, not who we shouldn’t be.

Adapting to the needs of the audience

What are young people telling us?

• Young people generally prefer content that reflects real-life settings, real language and their communities. Y oung people want to hear their own accents reflected in videos and see locations which are relevant to them.
• Young people want information that aligns with their developmental stage and real-life experiences. Primary-aged children may prefer cartoons and simple, clear visuals, whereas older young people want realistic images and real-life examples.
• Some young people prefer interactive approaches. Long, text heavy presentations with complex terminology may be confusing and fail to engage young people. 
• Storytelling, role plays and relatable characters are more memorable than presentations.

“Not every child will be able to sit and listen to a presentation, particularly if there are no videos or pictures.”

Session style

What are young people telling us?

• Some young people felt that it would feel more comfortable to receive delivery in smaller groups. Pair work or group discussions could put young people at risk if they are in the same school or class as someone they are experiencing conflict with outside of school.
• Some young people felt the use of VR headsets could be engaging for some, but that it also risks re-traumatising those who had experienced exploitation. 
• The person delivering content should be knowledgeable about exploitation.

There are conflicts in schools, you might be sat next to a gang rival when receiving this delivery. It could be dangerous.

“It would feel easier to ask questions in smaller groups or with your form group than in a big assembly.”

“Looking at something alone on a VR headset would be isolating and maybe traumatic.”

Descriptions or portrayals of exploiters

What are young people telling us?

• ‘Gang ’ terminology can worry young people, particularly at a primary school age. Young people may feel anxious that their 'gang' of friends is harmful. 
• Young people felt a lot of existing material frames perpetrators as strangers, which doesn’t align with all young people's experiences. This can make young people experiencing intra-familial abuse or exploitation feel isolated.
• Scenarios which were perceived as unrealistic by young people (i.e. exploiters loitering outside a school, or buying a victim new shoes) undermine the credibility of content delivered, and serve as a barrier between young people and professionals delivering sessions.

So much happens before this [before handing over a package], even before the text messages. It's unrealistic to think they text and then just come to football.

“Descriptions of gangs might make me a little worried because I see my group of mates as a gang. It might make me start to question that friendship.”

• Young people felt that grooming and exploitation is more covert and gradual than what is depicted in the existing content. It therefore risks undermining young people’s lived experiences. Young people felt that they would be less likely to trust professionals who didn’t fully understand how exploitation often occurs.
• Young people identified that “often the exploiter is exploited themselves”. By content not highlighting that exploitation can be cyclical in nature, young people felt that their experiences, and the experiences of their wider communities, are downplayed and misunderstood by the professionals who are supposed to safeguard them.

It doesn’t really show that there is a chain. Often the exploiter is exploited themselves.

You would feel too scared to snitch. We need to be reassured we will be protected.

“Maybe the nicest teachers would reassure them it’s not their fault like don’t worry they won’t go to prison and just give advice and try help them out."

Pathways and support

What are young people telling us?

• Young people want clear, practical pathways for making disclosures and gaining support when they are experiencing or have experienced exploitation.
• Young people felt that the existing materials put too much emphasis on the 'consequence" of making bad decisions’ and did little to reassure them that they wouldn’t get into trouble, be judged, or labelled as a “snitch” for reporting exploitation.
• Young people want to understand their rights, what laws exist to protect them, and how they can access support.
• Young people want to know what responses to disclosures might look like, and what steps will be taken to protect them. 

I think children and young people should learn how to approach trusted adults with difficult topics and how it will be handled.

“One mistake is waiting for children to come and tell you their experiences. Around the time these presentations are given, for the rest of the afternoon you could take young people aside and ask them is this happening to you, do you know anyone this is happening to.”

“When a young person decides to tell you something you need to be really clear about confidentiality because if they tell you they are being harmed you’re going to need to break confidentiality. You need to be clear about that because it actually builds trust even if they decide not to tell you then. Or give them some helpline numbers.”