Young People, Sexual Exploitation & Risky Behaviours

1. Young People, Sexual Exploitation & Risky Behaviours Dee Cooley: City of York Safeguarding Children Board, dee.cooley@york.gov.uk Amanda Gaines: YOR-OK Children’s Trust Unit, amanda.gaines@york.gov.uk

2. Learning Agreement • Confidentiality • Active listening without interruption • Challenge the view NOT the person • Take responsibility for own learning • Support others without judging • Keep to time • Health warning – If you are affected by the workshop content, please feel able to take “time out”, and make sure you get support from workplace or community based services.

3. “There is always a certain risk to being alive and if you are more alive there is more risk” (Ibsen) • Social Networks - “…young teens are posting sexually explicit images of themselves on SNSs, and self-regulating each other with sexist, derogatory and demeaning language” Ringrose (2008) • Sexting - The sending of sexually explicit texts/photos (creation & distribution of indecent images of children, SOA 2003) • Sexual Exploitation - YP as victims and perpetrators

4. Young People Online • 99% of 8-17 year olds have access to the internet • 49% of these (incl. 25% of 8-11 year old internet users) have an online profile, e.g. Bebo, MySpace of Facebook • 59% use SNSs to make new friends • One third of 8-11 year olds, and 60% of 12-15 year olds are unsupervised online • 33% of parents and 43% of children say parents set no rules for SNS use Ofcom (2008 & 2009)

5. Sexualisation Online • SNSs allow users to create their own online identity, including posting photos “Girls…report being under increasing pressure to display themselves in their bra and knickers…whereas boys …display their bodies in a hyper-masculine way…” and there is a “popular perception that young people (particularly girls) are increasingly being pressured into appearing sexually available” Papadopolous (2010)

6. Online Grooming “The emergence of ‘social sites’ is having an effect on online offending patterns... Websites which incorporate personal profiles, social networking, instant messaging, games and photo sharing into the same online space … mean that information gathering on a child and grooming can take place in one online environment”. CEOP 2009 • TUK films: “Consequences” & “Jigsaw”

7. YP & Mobile Phones “Amongst children, mobile phone ownership increases dramatically with age, from a quarter of 5-6 year olds (26%), to half of 7-8 year olds, and three quarters of those aged 9-10 (77%).  At the start of secondary school, nine in ten children have a mobile phone (92% of 11-12s), rising to almost all (96%) 15-16 year olds” (CHILDWISE Monitor 2009-10).

8. Sexting • One in four 11 to 18-year-olds have received a "sext" by phone or email (Beatbullying) • Liz Merton, head of Spanish at Radley College in Oxfordshire, told MPs and school leaders at a Westminster Education Forum meeting that “sexting” is one of the biggest concerns among teachers • Teenagers taking/sending explicit photos of themselves or others may be committing an offence - although it is legal to have sex at 16 under British law, it is illegal to take, hold or share "indecent" photos of anyone under 18 • TUK film “Exposed”

9. Sexual Exploitation Definition The sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or a third person or persons) receive ‘something' (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of performing, and/or others performing on them, sexual activities….

10. Definition Cont’d ….Child sexual exploitation can occur through use of technology without the child's immediate recognition, for example the persuasion to post sexual images on the internet/mobile phones with no immediate payment or gain. In all cases those exploiting the child/young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources. National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People, 2008 (definition developed by young women)

11. London LSCBs Assessment Framework • Category 1 (at risk): a vulnerable child who is at risk of being targeted and groomed for sexual exploitation; • Category 2 (medium risk): a child who is targeted for opportunistic abuse through the exchange of sex for attention, accommodation, food, gifts and drugs. The likelihood of coercion and control is significant; • Category 3 (high risk): a child whose sexual exploitation is habitual, often self defined and where coercion / control is implicit.

12. Sexual Exploitation Intervention Diagram(SERA Model developed by The National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People, 2008 from Pearce et al 2002)

13. Preventing Sexual Exploitation Local strategies should aim to prevent the sexual exploitation of c&yp by: • reducing their vulnerability • improving their resilience • disrupting and preventing the activities of perpetrators • reducing tolerance of exploitative behaviour • prosecuting abusers

14. Children Who Sexually Harm • “The sexual behaviour of young people can be seen on a continuum from mutually agreed experimen-tation to very serious crimes such as multiple rape. Most children engage in activities that form a normal part of their sexual development. Much of this behaviour is not abusive ... Other types of behaviour are harmful and not appropriate”. Lovell (2002) • Statistics indicate that between one quarter and one third of sexual abuse and sexual harm is committed by children and young people. Mason & Erooga (2006)

15. My Dangerous Loverboy • Campaign to raise awareness of internal (within the UK) trafficking of young people for sexual exploitation. • Education resources available, incl. 20 minute film • Campaign music video: http://www.mydangerousloverboy.com/