How safe are our children? 2020 safe are our children? How How safe are our children? 2020 An overview of data on abuse of adolescents An overview of data on abuse adolescents Adolescents 2 How safe are our children? 2020 – an overview of data on abuse of adolescents This report would not have been possible without the input of many individuals. Authors Holly Bentley, Andrew Fellowes, Stephanie Glenister, Niamh Mussen, Hannah Ruschen, Bethany Slater, Michelle Turnbull, Tom Vine, Paddy Wilson and Sarah Witcombe-Hayes; with contributions from Stuart Allardyce, Dr Graeme Fairchild, Professor Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, Dr Jenny Lloyd, Sian Meader, Dr Emily Setty and Sally Thomas. Acknowledgements This report would not have been possible without the input of many individuals. There are too many to thank everyone individually, but included in this list are government statisticians and numerous NSPCC staff. We would particularly like to extend our thanks to Charlotte Leach and Caroline Youell from the Office for National Statistics for their invaluable feedback. Special thanks also go to Chloe Biggs, Pat Branigan, Susan Cooke, James Coventry, Rachel Day, Anna Edmundson, Gareth Hill, George Linfield, Jennifer Lokko, Pam Miller, Kathryn Moores, Maria Tuck, Alana Ryan, Anna Brown and Judith Fisher. 3 How safe are our children? 2020 – an overview of data on abuse of adolescents Foreword In the past six months, no one has been left Foreword 1 unaffected by the pandemic, by lockdown or by the uncertainties we are living through. For adolescents, already navigating perhaps the most challenging periodForeword of their lives, the impact is likely to be significant and, in some cases, lasting. The digital world is an amazing one for young people. Its boundless potential means our children can learn Cut off from friends and extended and needs of children and young online service platforms and the failure family,and createand missing in the ways support we neverpeople would at their have heart, dreamed and be effective to invest sufficiently in technology that of schools a decade and teachers, ago. all It with also limited helps in preventingprotect abuse and and support helping young could disrupt abuse, means that social access to open space; these, amongst people recover. networks are easy to exploit. otherchildren. things, have Our made Childline normal teen service life allows young people to If the pandemic has given us one almost unrecognisable. A duty of care approach to online safety instant message chat with counsellorspositive, it’s the knowledge via website that we canor is now more urgent than ever. 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