Barnardo’s fears the cost of living crisis will leave families unable to afford holiday activities, leaving children prey to sexual predators online and criminal gangs on the street
A record number of children are at risk of sexual and criminal exploitation this summer as theThe UK’s largest children’s charity,
One teenager revealed how lack of parental oversight or guardians he could trust meant that as a child he grew up in a “trap house”, a property from where drug dealers operate.Trap’ is exactly the right word for it because that’s the reality – you’re trapped into a never-ending cycle.” Jess Edwards, the charity’s senior policy adviser for childhood harms, said youngsters often did not recognise when they were being exploited. “A seemingly simple offer of gifts, food or drink at a time of need can quickly be leveraged by criminals into a cycle of debt or exploitation.”
Devastating cuts to youth services have also played a part, with free or affordable activities increasingly rare. Since 2010, 760 youth centres have closed, and real-terms expenditure by councils on youth services has fallen. In some areas, such funding has been obliterated entirely, with seven councils admitting that no money had been allocated to youth services in 2020–21.
Even when local childcare and holiday club places are available a quarter of families said they could not afford them and a fifth ruled out being able to take time off work to spend with their children., with seven in 10 youngsters saying they expected to spend more time on their computer during the holiday.
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