YMCA campaign aims to highlight increase in County Lines across Brighton and Hove

The scheme, launched by YMCA WiSE alongside a group of Brighton University student volunteers, aims to raise awareness among fellow students and the wider community of child criminal exploitation.

The Wise UP to Exploitation campaign will also highlight links between child criminal exploitation and the sale and distribution of drugs in Brighton and Hove. 

Organisers say the social media campaign will start conversations about recreational drug use in Brighton and Hove and the impact on children and young people who are exploited through this process.

Project worker Magdalene Mill from YMCA WiSE said: “Child criminal exploitation is a type of abuse where children are targeted, often through social media platforms such as snap chat and Instagram, they are then groomed and coerced into committing criminal acts. On the surface it may appear that children who are criminally exploited have made a freely given choice, however, among other tactics, Intimidation, violence, sexual violence, debt bondage and weapons have been used to manipulate them to commit crimes.”