Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
| Site: | OpenLearn Create |
| Course: | Aiming Higher for the Disabled Community: Induction and Training |
| Book: | Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) |
| Printed by: | Visiteur anonyme |
| Date: | Saturday, 22 November 2025, 10:28 AM |
Table of contents
- 1. Case study 1
- 2. What is CSE?
- 3. Statistics
- 4. Features of CSE
- 5. The Process of Grooming
- 6. The Nature of Grooming
- 7. Perpetrators
- 8. Assessing the situation
- 9. Making a referral
- 10. Helping a child move on from sexual exploitation
- 11. Multi agency working
- 12. Local Safeguarding Children's Board
- 13. Resources
1. Case study 1
2. What is CSE?
Blackpool Council, 2023c and Barnardo's, 2024.
3. Statistics
How many children do you think are exploited each year in the UK?
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)
3.1. EU Kids Online
The multi-national EU Kids Online project indicates that it is not uncommon for 9-16 year olds to meet up with internet contacts.
1 in 12 children interviewed as part of the study met up with someone in person that they had already met online first.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)3.2. CEOP Centre
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's (CEOP) most recent findings show there has been a 16% rise in reports of exploitation and abuse year on year.
One quarter of these reports relates to online grooming inciting a child to perform a sexual act.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)
3.3. Puppet On A String
In Puppet on a String, a Barnardo's report on their work with young people in London, it was stated that the peak age for young people to be sexually exploited was 15 - but children as young as 10 were identified as being at risk.
Girls and young women were more than six times as likely as boys and young men of being at risk, but it was widely understood that actual risks to males were probably underestimated.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)
3.4. UK Human Trafficking Centre
Due to the close link between sexual exploitation and human trafficking it's important to understand the scale of this illegal activity.
The UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) report (2013) found 549 cases of human trafficking were children (310 were female, 208 were male, 31 gender was unknown).
The ages of the victims (reported in 2012):
- 70 were aged up to nine years old
- 113 were aged between 10 and 15 years
- 142 were aged between 16 and 17 years
- 96 were children when the exploitation commenced but had since become adults
- 128 were recorded as a child with no further information relating to their age provided.
4. Features of CSE
Regardless of the nature of the sexual exploitation, the child is always being victimised and the abuser has a power over them which is causing them sexual harm.
This power may result from a difference in age; the perpetrator is often much older than the young person, with money, status and intellect. Involvement in exploitative relationships is characterised by the child or young person’s limited availability of choice resulting from their social, economic or emotional vulnerability.
Most sexual abusers act in isolation, but some groups of abusers act together. These people range from extended family networks to sophisticated national or international paedophile rings. These groups often use younger men or other young women to procure children for them. Offenders operating alone often involve boyfriend exploitation, where the young person believes they are in a relationship with the other person.
It’s important to remember that child sexual exploitation takes place everywhere and not just in big cities.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)5. The Process of Grooming
Please watch the video below which explains the Barnardo's Grooming Line. All information was originally available online Blackpool Council, 2023c.
You can pause the video at any point if you require more time to read.
6. The Nature of Grooming
Regardless of the nature of the sexual exploitation, one feature is consistent: in order to ensure the child or young person complies, the perpetrator will 'groom' them.
This is when an offender who wants to sexually exploit a young person isn't upfront about their intentions. They take time to make the young person, and sometimes their family, trust them.
Grooming:
- Can take a short time or can take many months of preparation
- Can involve the young person's parents
- Can be either online or in person
- Is a very clever, often well practised, process
7. Perpetrators
Please watch the video below. You can pause at any time to read or take notes.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)9. Making a referral
10. Helping a child move on from sexual exploitation
10.1. Helping parents and carers
It is very traumatic for carers or parents to suspect or discover a child is being sexually abused. Reporting concerns can be difficult, particularly when the abuser is someone that may be known and trusted by the family and young person.
When practitioners work with families or care providers, an essential part of the role is to ensure the work undertaken between carers and young people creates an open and honest relationship so young people feel able to speak about what may be worrying them.
Practitioners should also seek to raise awareness with parents and care providers about what some of the indicators are that suggest a young person is vulnerable to CSE. For example, noticing if they are mixing with a new group of friends, changes in their pattern of going out and socialising, receiving gifts.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)
11. Multi agency working
Child sexual exploitation is child abuse.
Child protection procedures must be followed if anyone suspects that a young person is a victim, or is at risk of becoming a victim.
Multi Agency Strategy
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 introduced a range of offences, including grooming and statutory rape of children under 13, which can be brought against perpetrators in CSE cases.
Conviction rates for child sexual exploitation are low and prosecutions can often re-traumatise victims, so the police must build a strong case against perpetrators to ensure prosecutions are secured. Without this, children and young people will continue to suffer abuse and violence, and lack confidence that agencies can protect them.
The police must work with Crown Prosecution Service solicitors who have an understanding of the issues in order to assess evidence from victims often perceived as unreliable witnesses.
Multi-agency support needs to be available to help victims and their families during court appearances (CEOP, 2011) and social care practitioners are in the best position to support young people through these processes.
(Blackpool Council, 2023c)12. Local Safeguarding Children's Board
Please click through the slides below to find out more about the role of the LSCB in CSE.
The Role of LSCB13. Resources
Blackpool Safeguarding Board - Vulnerable, Missing and Exploited Children Operational Action Plan Blackpool-CSE-Action-Plan.pdf
Tackling child sexual exploitation: action plan Tackling child sexual exploitation: action plan - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Child Exploitation and Online Protection command (Police)