Invisible Children: Barnardo’s Explores the Cost of Living Impact

The cost of living crisis has far-reaching impacts on vulnerable communities, particularly children at risk of criminal and sexual exploitation. The annual rate of inflation reached a 41-year high at 11.1% in October 2022 (UK Parliament). Recent research conducted by Barnardo’s, a leading child welfare organisation, delves into the troubling connections between financial hardship and child exploitation. Jessica Edwards, the Senior Policy Advisor for Childhood Harm at Barnardo’s, recently presented these findings at our National County Lines, Gangs and Violence Conference, shedding light on the increasing risks and the pressing need for policy reform and enhanced support services. The full presentation is available to watch above with 7 key findings below.

7 Key Findings from Barnardo’s:

1. Exploitation Through Debt: Children are increasingly being exploited through smaller debts. Essential items like food, vapes, and energy drinks are used as grooming tools, luring children into criminal activities to repay these debts. This trend highlights how exploiters leverage basic needs to entrap vulnerable children.

2. Poverty as a Grooming Process: Living in poverty creates an environment ripe for exploitation. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are coerced into criminal and sexual activities, often seeing exploiters as a means to earn money. Notably, young girls are being manipulated into sharing explicit images on social media platforms like Snapchat in exchange for money.

3. Family Financial Pressures: Financial strains compel families to work longer hours or irregular shifts, leaving children unsupervised and more susceptible to online exploitation. Additionally, fake job adverts on social media are on the rise, luring young people into exploitative situations under the guise of legitimate employment opportunities.

4. Professional Poverty: Support services face significant budget cuts, resulting in a lack of early interventions and support for victims. Schools, crucial in safeguarding children, are struggling with limited resources, affecting their ability to identify and support at-risk children. Mental health services are also overburdened, leaving children without the necessary support.

5. Increased Risks During Holidays: The summer holidays exacerbate risks for children due to the lack of affordable, safe spaces and supervision. Polling indicates that many children worry about not having money for activities, while parents struggle to afford holidays, childcare, and time off work. This lack of supervision and unmet needs heightens vulnerability to exploitation.

6. Correlation with School Holidays: Data from police forces between 2018 and 2022 revealed a decline in recorded child sexual exploitation offences during school holidays. This suggests that when children lack access to trusted adults, such as teachers, the reporting and identification of these offences decrease.

7. Gaps in Support Services: FOI requests to local authorities and police and crime commissioners revealed that two-thirds of local authorities and nearly four in ten police and crime commissioners hadn’t commissioned specific services for child exploitation in the previous year. This highlights a significant gap in the support available to at-risk children.

Policy Recommendations:

1. Strengthen the Victims and Prisoners Bill: Bernards, along with other children’s charities, calls for the Victims and Prisoners Bill to be strengthened to ensure commissioners provide sufficient support for child victims of crime, including abuse and exploitation.

2. Introduce a Statutory Definition of Child Criminal Exploitation: A statutory definition is crucial for improving the identification and understanding of child criminal exploitation. The current lack of definition leads to under-identification and misattribution of blame to the victims.

3. Increase Investment in Youth Services: Investment in youth services is vital for providing safe spaces and activities for children, particularly during holidays and after school. Enhanced training for professionals working with children and more research on the scale and nature of exploitation are also necessary.

The findings underscore the urgent need for policy reform and increased support for vulnerable children. Addressing these issues comprehensively will require a concerted effort from the government, charities, and communities to ensure children are protected from exploitation and provided with the support they need to thrive.

Hear Jessica speak at our upcoming Online Safety Conference, find out more below:

The Online Safety Conference 2024: Safeguarding Children in a Digital World

Keynote: Safeguarding Children Against Sexual Harms and Pornography Online

• Reviewing the impact that viewing pornography online can have on children
• Age verification and age estimation tools to ensure children are protected against pornographic content online: key tips
• Guidance on the importance of regulating online pornography the same way as offline pornography

Jessica Edwards, Senior Policy Adviser – Childhood Harms, Barnardo’s