As Children’s Commissioner, it’s my mission to make England the best place in the world for children to grow up – that means a place where every child feels safe, protected and supported to thrive. Yet for far too many children, this is sadly not a reality. In my The Big Ambition survey, only 66% of children aged 12 to 18 said they felt safe in their local area, highlighting the urgent need to protect children from harm in their communities.
The Government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which faces its second reading in the House of Lords today, presents the vital opportunity to strengthen the safety, protection and wellbeing of children. But while the Bill represents progress in targeting those who exploit and abuse children, there are areas where it must go further if it is to deliver genuine protections for all children.
The proposed new offence of child criminal exploitation is welcome and long overdue, but as it stands, there are serious risks that the law could fall short in protecting the very children it is meant to help.
As currently drafted, the Bill would allow a perpetrator to escape conviction if the child is over the age of 12 and the perpetrator “reasonably believed” they were an adult. Essentially, if a 13-year-old child is exploited to traffic drugs or steal, but the offender claimed they reasonably believed the child was older, they could avoid the new offence entirely. This cannot be right. Allowing room for interpretation, enables offenders to take advantage of the ambiguity and avoid accountability.
When an adult exploits any child for criminal gain, that should always be a mandatory criminal offence, regardless of the child’s perceived age. This clause risks replicating the same legal grey areas that have long hindered justice for victims of child sexual exploitation. Drafted with the same intention of avoiding criminalising someone who reasonably believed a child was older, in practice, it has been used to the benefit of older men who groom underage children for sex.1
Without its removal, there is a significant risk that similar perverse outcomes may emerge, with perpetrators attempting to undermine the credibility of vulnerable victims by focusing on the child’s appearance and behaviour and shifting scrutiny away from their actions. This is of particular concern as perpetrators often target vulnerable children who due to past traumas may appear more mature and less ‘innocent’ and disproportionately affects children of black and mixed heritage. Removing this clause is essential to avoid that kind of prejudice against vulnerable groups of children.
But changing the law alone is not enough. Child victims of criminal exploitation need protection and support, not punishment, yet my work shows that too often they are treated as offenders rather than victims.
When someone is convicted of exploiting a child, the system must ensure that that child is genuinely treated as a victim, and not themselves criminalised. This means reforming the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) process and ensuring that victims are automatically referred.
Alongside this, there must be a national strategy and statutory guidance on child criminal exploitation, bringing together police, social services, education and health. We cannot continue to treat child criminal exploitation as a series of isolated cases. It is often driven by organised crime networks that target the most vulnerable and can involve cuckooing and internal concealment.
No child should ever be criminalised for their own exploitation. Just as we protect children from sexual abuse and neglect, these changes would protect children from being drawn into crime by adults who profit from their vulnerability.
The new offence of child criminal exploitation has the potential to be transformative, but only if it is built on the foundation of strong safeguards, clear accountability and compassion. Making these changes to the Bill will ensure that every child victim of exploitation is seen, protected and support – not blamed.
As decision makers, leader and adults, we have a duty to keep children safe from exploitation and to act now.
1 National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – GOV.UK
