Child Exploitation is a growing and evolving threat.
Supporting children and young people to navigate exploitation, youth violence and knife crime.
What is Child Exploitation?
Understanding is the first step towards helping.
Child exploitation is the manipulation, coercion, or abuse of children for personal, financial, or criminal gain. It takes various forms, including criminal, sexual, and financial exploitation, all of which cause significant harm to a child’s well-being and development.
All forms of child exploitation violate a child's rights and can have long-term physical, emotional, and psychological consequences. Preventing and tackling exploitation requires awareness, early intervention, and strong legal protections.
Empowering Professionals To Take Action.
Our VR films cover a range of topics which can be used in trauma informed training
around the exploitation of young people.
Enhance Empathy and Understanding
Experience the world through a child’s eyes to foster greater empathy.
Improve Engagement with Hard-to-Reach Youth
VR scenarios can help professionals practice persistence and relationship-building techniques.
Identify Critical Warning Signs Early
Learn to spot subtle early signs of exploitation and prevent escalation.
Raise Awareness of Online Exploitation
Understand how social media and financial crime affect young people.
Abuse, Neglect and Trauma
This series of VR films delves into the impact of early experiences; such as trauma, identity struggles, peer dynamics, and school-related challenges (on the development and decision-making of young people). It supports deeper insight into trauma-informed care, the PACE model, and therapeutic strategies by highlighting the connections between these formative influences and youth behaviour.
Child Criminal Exploitation
Joe’s story offers a powerful insight into the effects of criminal exploitation, including the influence of gangs and county lines on both family dynamics and education. The series reveals how young people may be manipulated into drug-related roles through grooming and coercion, with risks like peer pressure and cuckooing playing a key role. It also considers how adult interventions can either contribute to harm or play a critical role in protection and prevention.
Child Sexual Exploitation
Aisha’s journey provides a compelling exploration of how young people can become exposed to sexual exploitation, grooming, drug trafficking, and other environmental risks. The series emphasizes the complex challenges youth may encounter and underscores how adult reactions can either hinder or encourage a young person’s ability to speak out and seek support.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that can impact thinking, emotional regulation, and behavior. It’s estimated to affect 1 in 13 children, with many—potentially up to half a million in England and Wales—still lacking access to appropriate support. Created in partnership with the National Organisation for FASD and Cambridgeshire Virtual School, this immersive narrative—told from the perspective of an unborn child—aims to deepen understanding and improve how professionals respond to and support those living with FASD..
Social Media and Digital Platforms
Experience life through the eyes of a teenager in a digital world where every online interaction; likes, messages, and shares - shapes their reality. This series explores the significant influence of social media on young people’s lives, shedding light on risks such as grooming, cyberbullying, revenge porn, body image pressures, mental health struggles, digital gifting, and targeted ads. It also uncovers how online platforms can be manipulated in unexpected ways, posing serious challenges for both young people and the adults supporting them.
Knife Crime and Serious Youth Violence
This series offers an in-depth look at the complex factors behind knife carrying and serious youth violence. Starting with a street robbery at knife-point, the story examines how peer influence and social media can intensify risky situations. It also explores the effects of police interaction and how quickly everyday encounters can escalate when weapons are involved. Created to encourage reflection and dialogue, the series supports learning around early intervention, prevention, and safeguarding strategies.
I found the VR set a very useful way to open up the conversation with the young person around criminal exploitation and gangs.
The young person described express he found the videos helpful to watch, and it opened his eyes to what it may be like if you are to get involved with exploitation.
He said watching some of the videos made him feel scared and gave him something to think about. It also helped with and reassuring the young person who he can go to speak with about issues around county lines and exploitation.
Unlock Key Resources to Support Your Work.
Our groundbreaking research study is now available for download.
The tri-borough VR project - Safeguarding Adolescents from extra-familial harm (EFH) - is a DfE-funded project that was undertaken in the London Boroughs of Redbridge, Enfield and Waltham Forest.
The project used VR in interventions with young people exposed to, or at risk of, Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) and other contextual safeguarding issues.
Following use of the Cornerstone VR Programme:
96%
of participants agreed to have a deeper
understanding of the child's perspective.
96%
of participants agreed they would consider alternative ways to approach situations in their work.