A report from the Children's Society reveals that children are running away from home or care from as young as eight years old and most cases are not being reported to the authorities.
The report, Make Runaways Safe, is calling for a national safety net to be put in place for every child who runs away. This would include the government drawing up a national action plan.
The report reveals that it costs society £82m a year to deal with all but the most severe incidents of children running away.
A troubling new trend exposed in Make Runaways Safe is that the use of mobile phones and social networking sites is making it easier for predators to target vulnerable child runaways.
The Children's Society will be launching a campaign later this year to support young runaways. The charity has been campaigning to safeguard and protect young runaways for more than 25 years and has nine projects dedicated to working with children who run away, or are at risk of being sexually exploited, supporting more than 1,000 children every year.
For more information, visit www.makerunawayssafe.org.uk.
