Safer Children - Safe with Friends
Peer on peer abuse
Abuse may not always be from an older person. Young people are capable of abusing their peers.
Peer on peer abuse can take the form of:
- bullying (including cyber-bullying)
- sexting and any other form of
- sexual or physical abuse.
- Gender based issues can also occur e.g. - girls being sexually touched/assaulted - boys being subject to initiation/hazing type violence.
Specific safeguarding issues against another student may include:
Physical abuse:
- Pre-planned violence
- Physical altercations
- Forcing other to carry out violence
- Forcing others to use drugs, alcohol or other substances
Emotional abuse:
- Bullying
- Threats and Intimidation
- Blackmail/extortion
Sexual abuse:
- Sexual assault
- Indecent exposure
- Indecent touching
- Showing pornography to others
- Forcing others to create/share/download indecent images
- Sexting
Sexual exploitation:
- Encouraging/enticing other pupils to engage in inappropriate sexual behaviour
- Photographing or videoing other children performing indecent acts
- Sharing images through social media
Child safety when out with friends
It's something every parent experiences. The day that their child starts asking if they can go out on their own or with friends. It's just a natural part of their growing independence and, like every part of growing up, it can be a challenging hurdle for a parent to overcome.
Just like deciding when a child's old enough to be left at home on their own, there's no set age when you know it will be safe for them to go out without you. Obviously, toddlers and young children won't be able to stay safe without you watching over them, and even older children have different levels of maturity. So some 11 year olds will be quite capable of going to the park or the shops on their own but others might not be ready to do this safely.
As well as thinking about how mature your child is for their age, the decision about whether you're happy for them to go out alone will depend on where they're planning to go. For example, going to the playground round the corner is very different to catching a bus to the local shops.
Because we all want our children to be as safe as possible, you really need to feel comfortable before letting them go out on their own. So some of the questions to ask yourself before you make up your mind are:
- where and when do they want to go?
- what do they want to do there?
- who's going to be with them?
- how far away are they going?
- what time will they be back?
- how can I reach them?