Child Exploitation

Child Exploitation is when someone asks or uses you to do something you do not want to do or feel uncomfortable with. As far as child exploitation is concerned this tends to be something of a sexual nature or committing a criminal offence.

• Criminal exploitation
  When someone pressures, tricks, or forces a young person into illegal activities like stealing, carrying drugs, or hiding weapons.
• Sexual exploitation
  When someone manipulates, pressures, or tricks a young person into sexual activity, pictures, or conversations for their own benefit.
• Online exploitation
  When someone uses social media, gaming, or messaging apps to manipulate, threaten, or take advantage of a young person.
• Financial exploitation
  When someone uses a young person’s money, bank account, or personal details for scams, fraud, or stealing.
• Emotional exploitation
  When someone uses guilt, threats, fear, or manipulation to control another person’s actions or feelings.
• County lines exploitation
  A type of criminal exploitation where gangs use young people to transport drugs or money between areas.
• Child trafficking
  When children or young people are moved from one place to another so they can be exploited or controlled.
• Grooming
  When someone builds trust with a young person to manipulate, control, or exploit them later.
• Peer exploitation
  When exploitation comes from someone of a similar age, such as pressure from friends, classmates, or partners.

Those who exploit children and young people use many different ways to develop their control of another person. Often exploiters will look for vulnerabilities in their victims such as age or isolation and using the internet is a common way of sexually grooming young people. There is no length of time this process takes in abusers gaining control over another person. At times exploiters will work hard to trick or use ways to gain the trust of their victims. However, in other circumstances victims are controlled very quickly when threats of violence or intimidation may be used.

Exploitation process persuading methods include:

• Offering free gifts including, money, clothes, mobile phones, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, bicycles, and food.
• Offering affection or offering friendship or being their mate to gain trust.
• Offering protection or safety, a place to stay or somewhere to sleep.
• Paying off debts.
• Providing lifts in cars.
• Deceiving someone to send naked or indecent pictures of themselves but telling their victims not to worry about this.
• The exploiter/perpetrator claims that the relationship they have is genuine or real and/or loving. This may be just one way of gaining trust as well as deterring others who maybe suspicious.

Exploitation can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter what your background is. Exploiters will target anyone they see vulnerable regardless of their sexuality, age, or gender.  Younger children are equally at risk as older young people of being exploited sexually or criminally.

There are some factors that make you more vulnerable to exploitation especially if you’re mixing with people you don’t know or trust. If you have never been in trouble with the police some exploiters see this as an advantage as you may not stand out to the police if you were being asked to take part in a crime. If you’re not in the presence of people who care for you, for example, those absent or missing from home or online and away from parents.