Child abuse is any action by another person, adult or child, that causes significant harm to a child. The abuse may be any form of physical, emotional or sexual mistreatment or lack of care that leads to injury or harm.
Abuse (also called Significant Harm) can happen to a child at any age. Abusers can be adults but not just parents or carers, abuse often occurs within a relationship of trust e.g. a teacher, carer, family friend or youth leader.
It can be physical, sexual or emotional, but can just as often be about a lack of love, care and attention. We know that neglect, whatever form it takes, can be just as damaging to a child as physical abuse.
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse is deliberately causing physical harm to a child. This might involve punching, kicking, biting, burning, scalding, shaking, throwing or beating with objects such as belts, whips, or sticks. It also includes poisoning, giving a child alcohol or illegal drugs, drowning or suffocation.
Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of illness in a child.
In pregnancy an unborn child can be harmed by domestic violence.
Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is where repeated verbal threats, criticism, ridicule, shouting, lack of love and affection causes a severe adverse effect on a child’s emotional development. It includes conveying to children that they are worthless, unloved, inadequate or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person.
Emotional abuse may include not giving a child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature inappropriate expectations being imposed on a child, over protection and limitation of exploration and learning.
It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another person as in domestic abuse. It may involve serious bullying (including cyberbullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children.
Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of ill treatment of children, or it may occur alone. Children who are emotionally abused suffer emotional maltreatment or neglect. It’s sometimes called psychological abuse and can cause children serious harm.
Neglect
Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a child’s basic needs whether physical or psychological and is likely to result in serious impairment of the child’s health or development. It’s dangerous and children can suffer serious and long-term harm.
Neglect is when a parent or carer fails to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment), medical care, or protection from physical and emotional harm or danger.
It also includes failure to ensure access to education or to look after a child because the carer is under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
In pregnancy neglect may occur as a result of misusing alcohol or drugs.
Sexual Abuse
A child or young person is sexually abused when they are forced or persuaded to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. This may involve physical contact including penetrative sex, oral sex, masturbation, kissing, rubbing, or touching outside of clothing, or it may involve non-contact activities such as involving children in watching sexual activities, producing or looking at sexual images, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse and it can happen online.
Abusers can be men, women or other children. Help and advice for parents and carers can be found at Parents Protect , or at Stop It Now.
Sexual abuse also comes in many forms including Sexual Exploitation and FGM.
Sexual Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation is a type of sexual abuse in which children are sexually exploited for money, power or status. this illegal activity is done my people who have power over young people and use it to sexually abuse them
This can involve a broad range of exploitative activity, from seemingly ‘consensual’ relationships and informal exchanges of sex for attention, accommodation, gifts or cigarettes, through to very serious organised crime.
Both girls and boys are at risk of sexual exploitation, and it is seriously harmful to children both emotionally and physically. Children and young people often find it very hard to understand or accept that they are being abused through sexual exploitation, and this increases their risk of being exposed to violent assault and life-threatening events by those who abuse them.
This short video also explains some of the practical steps you can take to protect the children in your life:
What are the signs you need to know?
- Repeatedly going missing-particularly overnight
- Coming home with unaccounted gifts, i.e. clothes, money, food, jewellery, drugs or mobile phone
- Having a relationship with an older partner with whom there may or may not be concerns
- Mood swings and changes in behaviour
- Excessive and secret use of Internet and /or mobile phone (potential grooming)
- Spending more time in their room and was accessing their computer late at night
- Having several SIM cards, frequent mobile phone top ups
- Being unusually secretive
- Losing contact with family and friends of their own age and associating with an older age group
- Unrecognised cars arriving at the home, especially at strange times
- Alcohol/Substance misuse
- Unexplained injuries
- Lacking self-esteem, leading to a change in personal appearance
- Excessive washing or bathing particularly when returning from missing episodes
What makes a child more at risk?
- If they come from a chaotic or dysfunctional household
- A lack of friends in the same age group
- Confused about their sexuality
- History of domestic abuse or neglect
- Learning disabilities
- Have come into contact with other exploited youngsters, e.g. at school
- Have suffered a recent bereavement or loss
- Are homeless or living in residential care, a hostel or bed and breakfast
- Have low self-esteem or confidence
- Young carer
Watch the video here of parents who have been through this with their children
‘Female Genital Mutilation’
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. it is also known as female Genital Cutting , Female Circumcision and ‘Sunna’.
FGM is a form of child abuse and is illegal in the UK.
Other helpful resources:
Forced marriage
A forced marriage is where one or both people do not consent to the marriage and pressure or abuse is used.
Helpful websites for finding support and guidance:-
Child trafficking and Modern Day Slavery
Child trafficking is a type of abuse where children are recruited, moved or transported and then exploited, forced to work or sold. Unicef works with governments throughout the world to stop the estimated 1.2 million children trafficked world wide each year.
Modern day slavery is not an issue from history or confined to certain countries. It is a global problem including the UK and is still happening today. The National government passed an act in 2015 and there was an awareness campaign. This was all about slavery and how we can all help stop it.
Helpful resources:
Grooming
Children and young people can be groomed online or in the real world, by a stranger or by someone they know – for example a family member, friend or professional.
Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse or exploitation.
Children and young people can be groomed online or in the real world, by a stranger or by someone they know – for example a family member, friend or professional.
Groomers may be male or female. They could be any age. Many children and young people don’t understand that they have been groomed, or that what has happened is abuse.
Look out for the signs:
- being very secretive about how they’re spending their time, including when online
- having an older boyfriend or girlfriend
- having money or new things like clothes and mobile phones that they can’t or won’t explain
- underage drinking or drug taking
- spending more or less time online or on their devices
- being upset, withdrawn or distressed
- sexualised behaviour, language or an understanding of sex that’s not appropriate for their age
- spending more time away from home or going missing for periods of time.
Helpful resources
- NSPCC – Grooming
- Parents Protect
- Pace- Parents against child sexual exploitation
- Its Not Okay
- NSPCC Sexual exploitation
Radicalisation
The NSPCC has help and advice for parents who think their child may be in danger. The NSPCC Chief Executive has said: “Our mission is to keep children safe from harm. We are contacted daily by worried parents and children themselves on all sorts of issues including radicalisation and dangers associated with extremism. Grooming online or in person is a classic technique used by abusers to exploit vulnerable young people. Spotting the signs of such abuse has never been more important if we are to help protect children from sexual exploitation, gang related activity or other hate crimes’.
Helpful resources
Harmful sexual behaviour
There is lots of help available for parents and carers who might be worried about how to talk about sexual consent with their children. The NSPCC Healthy Sexual Behaviour is a guide to keeping children safe and what to do if you’re worried.
The age of sexual consent in the UK is 16, so sex with any boy or girl under 16 is unlawful whether or not both people have given their consent. A child under the age of 13 cannot consent to sex.
If someone is drunk, drugged, unconscious, or has been threatened or bullied then they cannot consent to sexual contact or activity, and sex without consent is rape.
Sexual consent is something that has to be ‘got’ (received) as well as ‘given’.
Your child needs to understand that consent is not just about saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’; many of the signs that a person is uncomfortable with something are non-verbal and it is important that teenagers look out for these signs. Such as; someone turning away from you, looking frightened or nervous, tensing up and pushing you away etc.
Many young people are unclear that consent is something that needs to be sought and given even in an intimate relationship. It is very important that your teenager understands that both people in a sexual relationship must agree to it and can change their mind and withdraw at any time if they want to stop.
As a parent it can feel awkward talking to your child about sexual consent; however it is important to have the conversation to help your child have healthy sexual behaviour.
Consent means agreeing to do something. when it comes to sex, this means someone agreeing to take part in a sexual activity.
Children and young people who develop harmful sexual behaviour harm themselves and others.
Helpful resources
