Children and young people who come to the attention of services must always be recognised and treated as children, regardless of their circumstances and safeguarded accordingly. It is vital to gather and share information from a range of sources, including the child or young person themselves, their family, peers, community, and the practitioners they engage with. This holistic approach enables a more accurate assessment of both risk and protective factors, ensuring that interventions are appropriately tailored to reduce the likelihood of further harm.

Addressing CCE is a complex and evolving challenge that demands a shared responsibility across agencies. Multi-agency collaboration is essential, not only to safeguard those at risk but also to disrupt exploitation networks. Effective disruption tactics and the prosecution of perpetrators are critical components in reducing the prevalence and impact of CCE.

Northern Ireland presents a unique safeguarding landscape, shaped by its socio­political history and complex community dynamics. The legacy of conflict, combined with ongoing socio-economic challenges, has created conditions in which children and young people may be particularly vulnerable to CCE. A nuanced understanding of these contextual factors is essential to ensure that assessment, intervention, and support strategies are both effective and appropriately tailored to the local environment.

Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to child safeguarding and protection that extends beyond the traditional focus on abuse within the family setting. It recognises that the relationships children and young people form in their neighbourhoods, schools, peer groups, and online environments can also expose them to violence, abuse, and exploitation.

Perpetrators are often well organised and use sophisticated tactics. Research would indicate that they target areas where children and young people gather without much adult supervision, for example party-houses, parks or shopping centres or sites on the internet, hostels, food outlets, taxi ranks, outside schools. CCE can affect children and young people living at home and those living away from home. Going missing from their home, care or school can render a child or young person particularly vulnerable to CCE.

Vulnerability to exploitation does not occur in isolation. It is shaped by interconnected factors, sometimes referred to as “nested challenges” that compound risk and make children and young people more susceptible to harm. These challenges and contextual harms often overlap and reinforce each other, creating complex safeguarding needs. Examples include: poverty, family stress, peer influence, domestic violence, and community violence. Dr Colm Walsh’s 2023 report provides critical insights into the intersection of contextual and criminal harms in Northern Ireland. Together, these factors significantly increase a child or young person’s susceptibility to exploitation. His studies highlight that these contextual harms often go unrecognised by young people themselves, making them more susceptible to grooming and coercion. Young people require safer spaces where they can reflect on and process both contextual and criminal harms, reinforcing the importance of community-based, trauma‑informed supports to reduce risk and promote safety.

Exposure to violence, including being witness to and/or victim of it, can normalise it, resulting in the young person being unable to recognise their own victimisation. This approach is particularly relevant in addressing CCE, where perpetrators often exploit these external environments to coerce, control and manipulate individuals. This approach emphasises the need for child protection systems to engage with individuals and sectors that have influence over these extra-familial contexts.

Recent research commissioned by the Department of Justice and led by Dr Gillian Kane (Ulster University) highlights significant obstacles to identifying CCE in Northern Ireland. These include the absence of a legal duty to identify victims, safety concerns for those making referrals, and statutory definitions that fail to capture the hyper-local nature of exploitation. The study underscores the need for tailored referral processes and greater awareness among practitioners, reinforcing the importance of engaging with extra-familial contexts where harm is often normalised.

Children and young people impacted by CCE often face overlapping traumas including abuse, neglect, poverty, exclusion, and community violence. These experiences shape their behaviour, trust, and engagement with services. A trauma-informed approach is essential to safeguarding, ensuring responses are compassionate, coordinated, and effective.

Children and young people may:

• Appear angry, withdrawn, or “difficult”
• Struggle to trust adults or engage with services
• Minimise or deny their experiences
• Show loyalty to exploiters

These are survival strategies and not signs of guilt or defiance. Practitioners should respond with curiosity, not judgement, recognising behaviour as a reflection of trauma.

Systems can unintentionally retraumatise by:

• Repeatedly asking children to recount traumatic events
• Using stigmatising or blaming language
• Failing to explain decisions or processes
• Responding with punishment instead of support.

Children affected by CCE can and do recover when they are:

• Believed and supported
• Surrounded by safe, stable relationships
• Given opportunities to grow, learn, and thrive

"When someone believes in you, it changes everything"

"Professionals being more welcoming - feeling wanted in the room and feel like you can tell them anything and they will listen and not judge."

Practitioners should:

• Recognise how trauma influences behaviour and decision-making
• Respond with empathy and understanding
• Avoid re-traumatisation through sensitive practice
• Build trust through consistent, respectful relationships
• Support recovery, resilience, and long-term wellbeing.

This approach must be embedded across all sectors: health, education, justice, social care, and the community and voluntary sector. Further guidance on trauma-informed practice can be accessed on the SBNI website.

Intersectionality is a framework that helps us understand how different forms of exploitation and oppression overlap and interact. It recognises that children and young people may experience multiple, interconnected forms of harm simultaneously, and that these experiences cannot be fully understood or addressed in isolation. For example, a child or young person affected by CCE may also be experiencing sexual exploitation, coerced into trafficking drugs or labour exploitation. Addressing misogynistic cultural norms and the normalisation of harmful behaviours that contribute to gender-based violence is required as these dynamics perpetuate inequality, diminish protective factors, and increase vulnerability to exploitation. These overlapping harms can compound vulnerability, increase trauma, and create a complex web of risks and harms that require integrated, nuanced, and compassionate safeguarding responses. The importance of culturally sensitive and context-aware support is critical, with the child or young person’s voice and lived experience reflected in all interventions. By applying an intersectional lens, practitioners can better understand the full scope of a child or young person’s circumstances and develop responses that are holistic, equitable, and empowering. Exploitation, including CCE, is recognised as a form of modern slavery and human trafficking under UK law, which reinforces the need for safeguarding systems to address and respond to these harms comprehensively.

Being professionally curious is an essential attribute for practitioners working to safeguard children and young people from exploitation. It involves a reflective, inquisitive mindset, one that encourages practitioners to question, analyse, and explore beyond surface level information, rather than making assumptions or accepting things at face value.

Professional curiosity supports the early identification of subtle signs of CCE and helps practitioners consider the broader context of a child or young person’s life, including the impact of transgenerational trauma, identity, local dynamics, and community influences. By embedding professional curiosity into everyday practice, practitioners can better navigate complexity and respond to children and young people’s needs in ways that are both compassionate and effective.

"Actively engage in reflective practice: To be able to listen carefully to young people and to identify their overt and underlying needs and vulnerabilities, you need to be aware of and to constantly challenge your assumptions and biases. (Consider engaging in a diverse community of practice that will both support and challenge you)" Why Riot

Gender-conscious approaches are vital in safeguarding efforts, as they recognise and respond to the distinct experiences and vulnerabilities of children and young people based on their gender identity. This includes challenging harmful gender norms and ensuring that interventions are inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the specific needs of boys, girls, and non-binary children and young people. By adopting a gender-transformative lens, practitioners can move beyond simply acknowledging gender differences to actively addressing the structural inequalities that contribute to exploitation and harm. This approach helps create protective environments where all children and young people can feel seen, heard, and supported, regardless of gender identity.

CCE is child abuse, not a lifestyle choice. Children and young people coerced into criminal activity are victims, not perpetrators. While some children and young people may commit offences as a direct result of exploitation, this does not negate their status as victims. Responses must prioritise protection over punishment, challenge stigma, and recognise the impact of coercion, ensuring that safeguarding remains central even when criminal behaviour is present.

While boys and girls may be exploited in different ways, it is critical that practitioners recognise the full spectrum of gender identities and experiences. Gender should never be assumed, and responses must be inclusive, respectful, and tailored to the individual needs of each child or young person. LGBTQ+ youth acknowledge intersectional vulnerabilities.

Gendered experiences of CCE are shaped by:

• Community pressures
• Cultural attitudes toward gender and identity
• Paramilitary influence

It is important that practitioners ensure responses are inclusive, respectful, and tailored to individual needs, including those of LGBTQ+ youth.

Boys and young men are often overrepresented in criminal justice responses, particularly in relation to gang-related activity, drug trafficking and violence. They are often visible in street-level offending or public disorder, particularly in areas with known paramilitary activity. Their exploitation is frequently misinterpreted as criminality rather than child abuse. The Jay Review – Action for Children highlights that boys are frequently criminalised instead of protected, and their experiences of coercion and trauma are often overlooked. Boys are:

• Misidentified as perpetrators rather than victims resulting in a reluctance to engage with professionals, for fear of being labelled
• Reluctant to disclose due to fear, stigma, or threats
• Influenced by older peers
• Discouraged to seek help due to societal expectations around masculinity.

It is important that practitioners recognise trauma and coercion, not assume resilience or complicity.

Girls and young women are often exploited in more hidden or complex ways, including:

• Dual criminal and sexual exploitation, sometimes simultaneously.
• The Barnardo’s NI report Not a World Away identifies that girls in care or those who go missing are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, which may be linked to wider patterns of criminal abuse
• Grooming or exploited by paramilitary groups into criminal activity under the guise of relationships, social media or protection.
• Coerced into storing drugs or weapons.

They may also face victim-blaming attitudes or be perceived as making “choices” rather than being coerced. Gender-conscious practice should challenge these narratives and ensure girls receive the same recognition and protection as boys.

LGBTQ+ young people may face vulnerabilities such as social isolation or rejection by family or peers, targeted grooming by perpetrators under the guise of acceptance or protection. These young people may be fearful of disclosing abuse due to fear of discrimination or lack of trust in services. Perpetrators may target LGBTQ+ youth through social media or dating apps, using affirming language or shared identity to build trust before manipulating or coercing them. Barriers to disclosure include fear of being “outed”, previous negative experiences with services, or concerns about confidentiality. Facilitating access to LGBTQ+ peer support groups or advocacy services can help reduce isolation and empower young people to engage with protective networks.

Effective gender-conscious safeguarding requires:

• Awareness of gendered risks and dynamics
• Inclusive, non-stereotyped assessments
• Sensitivity to identity, trauma, and coercion
• Multi-agency collaboration using consistent, child-centred approaches.

The SBNI and member agencies are committed to changing perceptions and ensuring that children and young people are protected, not punished. This requires challenging stigma and victim-blaming, recognising coercion and control and responding with care, not criminalisation. Responses must also take account of intersecting vulnerabilities, including disability, race, ethnicity, gender identity, and socio-economic disadvantage, which can compound risk and impact access to support.

Language is a powerful tool in safeguarding practice. The words used by practitioners can either support or hinder a child or young person’s recovery and protection and shape how they are understood and supported. In the context of CCE, language must reflect the reality that a child or young person cannot consent to their own exploitation, and language used must never imply blame or responsibility on the part of the child or young person. It is crucial to remember that language shapes perceptions, which in turn influences how society responds to these issues. By using more accurate and victim-centred terminology, we can help shift societal understanding and improve support for children and young people.

Language that is stigmatising or judgmental can damage trust, discourage disclosure, and hinder engagement with support services, and impact safeguarding outcomes.

Practitioners should be mindful to use language that reflects the vulnerability of the child or young person and acknowledges the exploitative nature of their circumstances. It is important to avoid terms that suggest blame or imply choice, such as “putting themselves at risk.” Instead, language should accurately describe the situation, for example, stating that the child or young person has been groomed, coerced, or manipulated into harmful behaviours.

The Children’s Society has developed a resource titled “Child Exploitation and Abuse: An Appropriate Language Guide” (2024) which offers practical advice on using language that supports and safeguards children and young people affected by exploitation. The guide emphasises the importance of avoiding terms that imply blame or choice and encourages the use of terminology that reflects the child or young person’s vulnerability and lack of agency in exploitative situations.

In addition, the SBNI’s 2024 Trauma Informed Toolkit provides guidance on how to embed trauma-informed principles, including the use of inclusive and empowering language across safeguarding practice. The toolkit highlights the importance of communication that promotes trust, safety, and collaboration with children, young people and families.