What is Child Sexual Exploitation?

Child Sexual Exploitation is a kind of abuse that affects thousands of young people every year in the UK.

It can be physical, where the young person is encouraged or forced in to performing sexual activities such as touching, oral sex and penetration, or non-physical where they are asked to send pictures or make videos either by themselves or with other young people.

The young people may not know they are being abused and exploited. They might think they are in a good relationship with the person, or people. It might seem normal for young people to send explicit pictures and videos to boyfriends or girlfriends, however, the keeping and sending of any explicit material of under 16’s is illegal.

Many victims of exploitation have been groomed by an adult who will befriend them and make them feel special to gain their trust before sexually exploiting them.

Bedfordshire CSE Disruption Toolkit

Organisations across the county are working together to prevent CSE. A toolkit has been developed which can be used to help organisations consider what actions they might be able to take.

Visit the document here

Bedfordshire Multi Agency submission form

You can also submit information if you see something suspicious using  the Multi Agency Intelligence submission form.

Further  guidance on the form can be found here.

Barnardo’s

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is an increasingly high profile issue that affects children and young people of all backgrounds and from all communities, right across the UK. Barnardo’s is working to tackle the problem and support those who are affected.

Children are most vulnerable to sexual exploitation between the ages of 13 and 15, but younger victims are being targeted all the time. In one month alone, Barnardo’s services worked with 126 children aged 10–13 who had been affected.

For more information and advice,

visit their website here