Lincolnshire first to launch pilot for teens to avoid sexual exploitation

LINCOLNSHIRE is first in the UK to pilot a new project teaching children and teens how to avoid being sexually exploited.
The e-learning package is intended for schools across the county, and uses a scenario to show how easily children and young people can be victim to grooming or sexual exploitation.
It warns them of the danger signs, and show them how to avoid being taken advantage of.
Launched by the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board and Barnardo’s Training and Consultancy, it will be trialed in all schools in the county within weeks and then rolled out across the UK.
Caroline Mogg, child sexual exploitation prevention co-ordinator for the LSCB, said it is increasingly important to warn children and young people as technology increases with phones, social media and apps.
“It is designed to raise awareness of the grooming process,” she said.
“It plays out a scenario of two 14-year-old girls called Chloe and Paige.
“The way it has been designed means a lot of conversation between them happens in text messages so that it is familiar. Paige has met online a chap who is 25, she is 14, and despite her friends warning her and trying to advise her not to, she does meet up with him.
“It helps them realise that actually Paige is being groomed and exploited, that is the gist of the e-learning package itself.
“There is also a resource pack that Barnado’s has developed for teachers that deals with lots of issues that are spoken about, like how to have healthy relationships.”
However she stressed that the package has not been developed in response to any specific cases of child exploitation.
Andrew Morris, board manager for the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board, added: “It is not about keep children safe by wrapping them in cotton wool. It is giving children and young people the tools to keep themselves safe.”
The e-learning package was launched officially during an event at The Priory City of Lincoln Academy, on Friday, November 7.
Source: Lincolnshire Echo