National CSE Awareness Day 2019

18th March 2019 is National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day.

Child sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse.

It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.

CSE Principles

You can access excellent comics produced by young people themselves which highlight the voice of young people who have survived grooming and exploitation here.

Activities in Harrow

To support National CSE Awareness Day, Harrow Children and Young People’s Services, the Metropolitan Police and the WISH Centre will be working in partnership to raise awareness of CSE in Harrow, targeting our efforts in relation to potential and identified victims, offenders and locations of CSE.

Highlights of our activities over this period include:

Harrow Schools will be briefed on the key signs of CSE by specialist police officers and current resources

The WISH Centre will run a social media campaign to raise awareness of CSE in Harrow @thewishcentre #HarrowStopsCSE

CSE resources will be shared with all children’s homes and semi-independent placements in Harrow, and the CSE and missing children police officers will carry-out visits to key placements across Harrow

Police will be undertaking visits to identified CSE hotspots across the borough, as well as unannounced visits to addresses of known offenders