Unprotected: How the Normalisation of Underage Sex is Exposing Children & Young People to the Risk of Sexual Exploitation

Executive Summary

The evidence

• High levels of child sexual exploitation – including child-on-child sexual exploitation – have been the subject of growing concern over recent years and the Government has proposed a comprehensive response involving healthcare, social care, education, law enforcement, the voluntary sector, and local and national government.
• A study of recent serious case reviews and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham reveals fundamental flaws in professional attitudes towards children and young people and towards underage sexual activity. The evidence shows:
  • a complacent attitude towards underage sexual activity, with the assumption that, in the absence of any significant age disparity, it is consensual and a normal part of growing up;
  • a professional readiness to routinely provide contraception to young people under the legal age of consent in confidence, without considering the possibility that they may be suffering abuse;
  • a tendency to dismiss the concerns of parents;
  • an inclination to treat children under the age of 16 as adults with the competence to make their own decisions with regard to sexual activity.

How public policy is placing children and young people at risk

The age of consent

• A tendency on the part of the authorities to turn a blind eye towards sexual activity below the age of 16, provided it is believed to be consensual and the parties are of a similar age, is leaving young teenage girls vulnerable to approaches from predatory males.
• Not only is there a reluctance to initiate criminal proceedings for sexual activity below the age of 16 when it is deemed to be consensual, but there is also a disinclination to view it as a safeguarding issue.
• Crown Prosecution Service guidance allows for the possibility of consensual sexual activity involving children under the age of 13.
• The evidence suggests that a relaxed attitude towards the legal age of consent has contributed to a rise in the incidence of underage sex and of cases of child sexual exploitation.

Confidentiality policies

• The serious case reviews raise major questions about the common presumption that confidentiality policies are serving the best interests of children and young people.
• With its emphasis on the duty of confidentiality, Department of Health guidance on contraceptive and sexual and reproductive health services for under-16s gives the impression that young people are free to make an ‘informed choice’ to engage in unlawful sexual activity below the age of 16.
• There is both anecdotal and academic evidence to show that the confidential provision of contraception to under-16s has facilitated rather than hindered sexual experimentation among children and young people.
• Confusion over guidance on patient confidentiality is undermining child safeguarding procedures and placing vulnerable children and young people at risk of sexual exploitation.
• General Medical Council guidance for doctors on confidentiality recognises that there can be a conflict between confidentiality and child protection, but still insists that children under the age of 16 who are deemed to be of sufficient maturity are entitled to confidential contraception, abortion and sexual health services. The guidance even falls short of advocating the mandatory reporting on sexually active children below the age of 13.
• Government guidance to school nurses is also contributing to the normalisation of unlawful sex under the age of 16 and exposing children and young people to increased risk of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Sex and relationships education

• Evidence from the serious case reviews suggests that a relativistic approach to sex and relationships education does not hold the solution to keeping children and young people safe, but it is rather part of the problem. The moral confusion that has resulted from an abandonment of moral absolutes is placing children and young people at risk.
• Children and young people are being exposed to increased risk of sexual exploitation through messages commonly taught in sex and relationships education to the effect that sexual expression is a means to self-gratification and pleasure, and that young people must be free to decide for themselves ‘when they are ready’ for sex.
• ‘Comprehensive sex and relationships education’ has created in young people the expectation that they will have a series of casual sexual relationships. Within this culture, sexual exploitation has been allowed to go undetected and vulnerable young people have been deprived of protection.
• By reducing sexual safety and responsibility to the use of contraception and the giving and receiving of consent, sex education lessons in many schools are exposing children and young people to increased risk of sexual exploitation.

The sexual ‘rights’ of children and young people

• The notion that children and young people have sexual ‘rights’ is undermining both the responsibility of parents for the care and protection of their children and the basic principles of safeguarding.

The Brook Sexual Behaviours Traffic Light Tool

• The use of the Brook Sexual Behaviours Traffic Light Tool is calculated to further encourage a climate in which underage sex is viewed as a normal part of growing up. By giving ‘positive feedback’ to young people deemed to be in consensual sexual relationships below the age of 16, professionals may inadvertently be condoning and promoting sexual exploitation and abuse.

Conclusion

• Even though the serious case reviews and independent inquiry in Rotherham have repeatedly identified the normalisation of underage sex as a major reason for the complacency of child protection agencies, the Government has given no indication that it has any plans to address the issue.
• The evidence demonstrates that a review of professional attitudes towards underage sexual activity and an investigation into the unintended consequences of teenage pregnancy strategies that have a focus on sex education and confidential contraceptive services are long overdue.
• The problem of child sexual exploitation is not primarily systemic, but social, cultural and moral. It will therefore not be resolved by restructuring and improved communications within local authority and police departments.
• There needs to be a fundamental change in how children and young people are treated, how parental responsibility is understood, how the family unit is regarded, and how the law is administered.