Any young person from any background can be criminally exploited.
Exploiters look for young people who are less likely to be suspected by their parents, teachers, the police and other adults.
Exploiters use girls and young people from loving homes to commit crimes. They also use young people from all different ethnicities.
Parents and carers are not to blame. Exploiters use sophisticated ways of making young people trust them.
Young people may not know they are being criminally exploited.
Young people may think the exploiters are their friends.
They may think exploiters care about them because they take them out for food, buy them things or protect them.
Exploiters may encourage young people to think they care about them more than their families. They may try to isolate young people from their parents and carers and/or threaten them with violence.
Exploiters tempt young people with the promise of ‘easy money’
Young people may think that the exploiters are helping them to earn large sums of money so they can support their families and/or buy the things they see on social media, like expensive trainers, branded clothing and luxury cars.
