Early Warning Signs
It is vitally important to try to identify the early warning signs that your child may be getting exploited.
When Should You Start Being Concerned?
Many behaviours that might seem worrying in isolation can actually be typical teenage experimentation or growing independence.
The concern arises when multiple warning signs occur together, especially if they are persistent or escalating.
Individual
- Change in use of language especially on the phone
- Loss of regional accent
- Non-committal to plan future arrangements
- Unwillingness to explain whereabouts
- Sudden interest in new topics, including police programmes, crypto currency,
- Unexplained injuries- bruises, cuts
- Loss of interest in previous activities- stopping sports, hobbies
- Association with different people, mentioning new names
- Missing episodes from home or care
- Periods of time unable to contact
- Extreme change in eating habits resulting in sudden weight gain or loss.
- Change of friendship group
- Listen to different style of music- especially drill
- New nickname
- Child ill more often than normal.
- Won’t go to certain locations
Mental Health
- Change in mood- secretive, withdrawn, easily agitated
- Lack of concentration
- Paranoid when in the car
- Restless at home
- Extreme tiredness when at home
- Smoking cannabis to help relax and sleep
Travel
- Child continually asks for a lift at short notice
- Child wants dropping of at places rather than a persons address
- Child wants picking up from outside a shop, pub carpark, end of road, never from a house number.
- Child often late for pick up and you can’t get hold of them.
- When the child turns up they may be hot and flustered.
- They may get a lift/taxi home, but it’s never to your house, always round the corner.
- Child gets dropped at one location and needs picking up miles away from there later.
- No one is ever with them when they get picked up.
Possessions
- Childs items of value go missing without explanation ie designer watch, ring, bag, designer scarf.
- Always carries a small cross body bag, even round your house.
- Child reports that they have swopped items with friends, but the item they are wearing looks brand new.
- Lots of brand new vapes
- Finding unexplained receipts for clothes in bags and pockets
- Long parcels delivered to home address
- Missing items supposably ‘left at a friends’ or stolen at park. Don’t want to go and pick it up when offered or report it to police
- Child has a coloured bandana in the possession.
- Disposable rubber gloves found in bags/pockets
Phone
- Always running out of battery despite taking charger out.
- Excessively on phone, making and receiving very short calls
- Excessively texting/snapchatting
- Constantly changing phone number
- Constantly changing social media accounts
- Possessing 2 or more phones or SIM cards
- No one is ever with them when they get picked up.
- If you can check mobile phone bill accounts for taxi companies, or out of area phone numbers.
Clothing
- Has new items of clothing- unexplained or claimed to have swapped
- Clothes with slits in or holes in
- Designer clothes that have gone missing/lost
School
- Decline in behaviour at school
- Decline is school attendance
- Multiple missing episodes from school
- Lack of enthusiasm for school
- Always taking a change of clothes to school
Discover
- Discover rubber disposable gloves in clothes/bags
- Wedge of money
- Small plastic drug bags, full or empty
- Knife or weapon in room
- Small pocket scales
- Images drawn of knives
- Lists of names and phone numbers on scraps of paper
- Clothes, bags smell of cannabis
- Train tickets
- Balaclava
- Receive letters in post from a prison, has offenders ID number on the back.
Relationships/friends
- Inappropriate relationships,
- Inappropriate sexual activity
- Partner many years older.
- Interest/involvement in gangs