Child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and county lines

Sexual and criminal exploitation are forms of child abuse. A child may appear to cooperate, receive something in return, or return repeatedly, but that does not remove the abuse. Control can be maintained through power, need, fear, debt, affection, status, substances or threats.

County lines is one form of child criminal exploitation, but not the only form. Children may be used to move drugs, money or weapons, store items, recruit peers, attend parties, travel to hotels or houses, or exchange sex after grooming or under pressure. Different types of exploitation can affect the same child.

Signs that should make staff think wider

• Out-of-area pattern: found far from home, collected by car, or linked to hotels or houses.
• Phone pattern: multiple phones, relentless calls, coded language or panic about answering.
• Money and debt: cash, gifts, expensive items or talk about owing someone.
• Physical warning signs: injuries, exhaustion, intoxication or visible fear after return.
• Group dynamics: loyalty to risky peers, contact with older associates or pressure to bring others along.
• Story change: inconsistent accounts, secrecy or rehearsed explanations.

Home Office guidance and the Wales practice guides both state that exploitation types can overlap. A child may be experiencing sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation, trafficking concerns and repeated missing episodes at the same time.

When gifts, fear, travel, phones and missing episodes cluster together, treat the cluster itself as the warning sign.