A series of Instagram posts have been created to engage with children and young people in relation to child sexual exploitation (CSE).

It comes as the CSE Taskforce has been working with the YourPolice.UK team to develop a number of messages to raise awareness of CSE, how to spot the signs, and crucially, how to report any concerns to police or other organisations.

YourPolice.UK is the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) digital youth engagement channel, which has been building up an audience of engaged young people on social media for over four years. Currently, the channel has nearly 24,000 followers with the majority being aged under 18.

The channel puts out a new post every day about policing, the law, youth issues and ‘Spotlights’ on local forces and the many roles that people who work in policing across the country do, to help keep their communities safe.

As well as putting out new content every day, the team monitors the channel seven days a week, twelve hours a day and respond to every single comment, answering any questions and signposting young people to support organisations, if required.

The CSE Instagram series will see posts published every couple of weeks throughout January and February using videos and picture carousels to myth-bust and explain the different types of exploitation, such as grooming.

Richard Fewkes, Director of the CSE Taskforce, said: “It is crucial that the work of the Taskforce not only supports the operational policing response to child sexual exploitation and abuse, but it also does all it can to support a preventative approach and stop abuse happening before it starts or at the earliest opportunity.

“This initiative allows policing to engage with children and young people and provide them with support and advice through a platform they are familiar with and the excellent work of the YourPolice.UK team has allowed us to achieve this.

“Ultimately, work like this will help safeguard more children and young people and protect them from harm.”

Click here to view the Instagram channel

To contact the YourPolice.UK team, please email: [email protected]