More teacher training needed to combat sexual abuse

Childline has argued that teachers need extra training to educate pupils about healthy relationships and consent, after the number of children who reported being forced into sex rose by 16 per cent in a year.

The charity delivered 4,500 counselling sessions in 2018-19 to children who reported being sexually abused, with the most children calling because they had been forced to perform or watch sexual acts. Sexual exploitation featured in over half of the 8,841 counselling sessions on sexual abuse. Exploitation included being offered gifts or affection in exchange for sexual activity.

In more than a third of counselling sessions provided by Childline last year, young people said they were targeted online and through social media, often by their peers or people known to them. The biggest increase was in the number of 16- to 18-year-olds seeking help for sexual exploitation, which had risen by a quarter since the previous year.

The NSPCC, which runs Childline, is now urging the government ‘to provide proper training to teachers so they can deliver effective and relevant lessons about healthy relationships, consent and sex; and support young people to get help from a trusted adult’.

Shaun Friel, head of the charity, said: “I wouldn’t want to present a picture that it [the internet] is a dangerous world but it just means that children can be contacted in ways they couldn’t before. There’s great potential for children to be exploited through some of the mediums where young people spend their time.”