Take a ‘proportionate approach’ to child-on-child sexual abuse, expert urges

Schools should take a “welfare approach” to both the victim and the perpetrator in cases of child-on-child sexual abuse, a safeguarding specialist has recommended.

Dr Jenny Lloyd, a senior research fellow at the University of Bedford, said “punitive and sanctions-based” approaches to sexual harm risk placing all the decision-making on victims.

She said the zero tolerance approach of some schools towards sexual harm can silence students who fear the perpetrator will be excluded and publicly shamed when they only want the abuse to stop.

“If you’re a student in a school taking this (zero-tolerance) approach you already know what’s going to happen if you speak up and you speak out,” Dr Lloyd said.

She made the comments at an event at New Scotland Yard to launch new guidance for schools and colleges on sexual violence, child sexual exploitation and other harmful practices.

Issues covered range from sexting, the sending of indecent images by young people, through to grooming, sexual abuse, honour violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).

The document gives advice and resources to teachers on how to spot signs of the many forms of abuse and the appropriate safeguarding steps to take.

It was developed by the Met Police in partnership with the National FGM Centre, the London Harmful Practices Working Group and the Department of Education.

Dr Lloyd said schools can struggle to response appropriately to the sharing of indecent images among underage children, unwanted sexual touching, harassment or coercive control.

“Immediate permanent exclusion and criminalisation of young people, while this is well-intentioned, takes the decision-making from staff – who are trained very well – and puts it on the victim,” she said.

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