CYP Now - Vulnerable children face growing risk of child criminal exploitation, Barnardo’s warns

Vulnerable children are at increasing risk of child criminal exploitation but police forces and other agencies often lack the training and skills to effectively protect them, research by Barnardo’s reveals.

Children as young as 10 are being targeted by gangs, researchers have warned. Picture: Adobe Stock

The report finds that during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic organised criminal gangs moved their exploitation of children into busier public places like supermarket carparks, where it was easier to conduct activity during lockdowns without arousing suspicion.

Youth workers and frontline child criminal exploitation practitioners also say that young people who had been coerced to carry drugs were forced to wear delivery driver uniforms or high vis jackets, allowing them to hide under the guise of legitimate activities.

Gangs used the promise of “easy money” to coerce children into carrying drugs as many vulnerable families struggled with increasing poverty due to the impact of the pandemic on the jobs market.

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