The Girlguiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2020 found a “significant number of girls aged 11 to 21 feel worried and unsafe outside, with the number who say they receive unwanted attention when they go outside doubling across the age range.” This builds on previous reports (e.g. the 2017 report) which identified that 39% experienced having their bra strap pulled by a boy and 27% having their skirts pulled up within the previous week. The same report found that 31% of female respondents aged 13-17 years saying they had received unwanted sexual images or messages in the last year (compared to 11% of male respondents).
The Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, Ofsted 2021 found that nearly 90% of girls, and nearly 50% of boys, said being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers. Also, 92% of girls, and 74% of boys, said sexist name-calling happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers. The frequency of these harmful sexual behaviours means that some children and young people consider them normal.
In England, Wales and Scotland, the three nations for which data is available, around 90 per cent of recorded offences of rape against a 13- to 15-year-old were against girls (How safe are our children, NSPCC 2020).
It should also be noted that children/young people who are, or are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bi, or trans (LGBT) can be targeted by other children, and children/young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are more likely to be abused than children/young people without additional needs.
All our children/young people have a right to grow up safe from abuse and harassment. Education settings are central to framing a safe ethos and creating safe spaces for children/young people to explore healthy relationships, and there is a duty on settings to ensure they take action to keep children/young people safe. The concern around the level sexual violence and sexual harassment in schools led to the government publishing a review into sexual abuse in schools and colleges in June 2021. This led to specific government advice being developed which was then incorporated into the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education.
There is a strong movement to safeguard children and young people from harm by changing expectations, challenging unacceptable behaviour and improving children and young people’s knowledge and understanding of healthy relationships.
