Danielle Jones
Despite legislation recognising Child Sexual Exploitation as a crime (Scott et al, 2019), the aim of this article is to discover if social media is making it more challenging for professionals to protect children and young people from Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) whilst identifying what support and training is offered to professionals, victims, and families. Livingston and Smith (2014) also identify the benefits but also the risk of harm associated with online content or contact. The Impact of CSE can have long-term effects on a child’s wellbeing and mental health lasting into their adulthood and often their entire life. There is a range of implications, for example, mental health problems, a criminal record, drug and alcohol addiction/ substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts/ attempts (Berelowitz et al, 2012; Parents against child sexual abuse, 2013; Safe and Sound, 2013; NSPCC, 2021).
A study of professionals that work in the field will identify issues professionals are facing with protecting vulnerable children and evaluate the effects of social media on children and the impact, either positive or negative, this has on the supporting profession. Furthermore, an understanding what access and support there is available on social media for children and young people will be explored. CSE can happen online and offline; when sexual exploitation happens online it can involve conversations, for example, sexting, voice notes, and calls, these conversations could also include sending and receiving explicit images, video calls, and webcams (Hamilton-Giachritsis et al, 2017). According to a study by Child Wise, most children own a mobile phone by the age of seven and have access to or own a mobile device/tablet having access to the internet from an earlier age (cited in Foster, 2021). Both qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed methods) will be used to gather data to reach as many professionals as possible in the timeframes given as Wright (2017) states online surveys are much faster and easier for researchers to obtain data. Researchers also concur that surveys are a good way to obtain data from professionals with similar characteristics (Bachmarn and Elfrink, 1996; Yun and Trumbo, 2020).