I work for a charity. In this charity, we help young children that are victims of exploitation, trafficking, gang work, substance misuse etc. Specifically, our service works to support those from ages 11-25. We work closely with the police and are government funded, it’s a pretty intensive environment.

Before I worked here, I never really considered how deeply rooted the silence of young boys especially is. My knowledge of exploitation went as deep as news articles of little girls being made to do sex work, grooming rings etc. But it was very rare that an article about a boy facing the same fate ever came up. Because of this, I spent most of my years honestly not even really considering it. I think the same goes for most people. People have this idea that exploitation is a predominantly female issue.

Let me tell you that since working here, I have found it is very clearly not.

Redacting information for safeguarding and privacy reasons, but we very recently had a case of a young boy. 13 years old. He had been ‘adopted’ into a group of adult drug dealers and was being sent to the South of the country to smuggle drugs to other dealers by the sea. We found out about him because he was stabbed during a drug trade gone wrong. When we spoke to him, he told us that he did not care for his safety or if he lived or died, because he was making money for himself and his family. He had been indoctrinated so hard that this young boy did not care if he survived or not.

That is just one case. A predominant amount of cases are actually young boys who have been groomed into services, running county lines etc. The amount of times I have visited a young person’s home to discuss their situation, and everyone around them just seemed completely unphased by their actions.

This phenomena isn’t something that ends up on the news. Everyday I receive multiple new cases of young boys being exploited in various ways. Everyday these boys go missing, are caught with weaponry and drugs, all because they are being trafficked from area to area. But do they ever get news coverage? No.

When a young boy DOES make headlines for this kind of thing, he is blamed. He is painted by media as an out of control child who has by choice began making awful decisions and it is his own fault he is in this situation. I am saying from first hand account so many of these boys are normal kids. A lot of them don’t WANT to do this, they would prefer sit home and play fortnite or whatever with their friends.

You don’t hear about these children through media because they are deemed less important or deemed to be at fault.

It is a heartbreaking thing to see everyday. I do my best to make a difference, but there’s only so much a small organisation can do. It is so so scary and upsetting.

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EDIT: I’m not going going to share the company I work for (mostly because I don’t particularly want my internet life tied in with my real one haha)

But I will use this opportunity to post some resources and sites we use that you could potentially pass on to help out.

Bare in mind I am from England, so these sources are all British ran, since these are companies I work side by side with and trust!

Spectra London is a service that works to give sexual health and well-being services to young people for free. This includes advice, 1-1 youth chats, free contraceptive and STI testing, mindfulness events regarding sex and drug use.

Metro Charity is a mostly volunteer based charity working to provide health support and a sense of community to young people mostly situated in London. They do 1-1 counselling for people affected with ailments such as HIV as well as doing a 2 hour mental health drop in once a week. It’s a great place to socialise and help people exit their shells

Is This Okay? is an online service that’s been in the works for a while. It provides a safe and confidential place for people to talk about their problems guided by a trained specialist behind the screen. It’s run by the country’s Missing People scheme. Specifically regarding exploitation there is a specialised safeguarding team ready and available to discuss these situations.

Hopeline is a 365 day a year run phone line for any person under 35 having any suicidal thoughts. Trained advisors are able to offer support to you or if you have concerns about somebody else. It’s run by a wonderful charity, Papyrus UK who work to help the prevention of young suicide.

I have personally worked with all these different groups and think they are incredibly key.

Someone else in the comments suggested the work of ‘Lads need Dads’. I’ve never worked with them but their cause seems incredible. They work to help young boys without a father figure in their life via mentoring under the motto of ‘Equip, Engage and Inspire’. They work in male led groups to provide young boys with activities, life skills, training and inspiration.

Thank you all for the positive reaction to this post ❤️