UK youngsters face increasing exploitation risk as poverty increases
4 Min Read
As the UK falls deeper into inflation, poverty rates rise and parents face increasing challenges in supervising youngsters thus leaving them more prone to sexual and criminal exploitation by gangs.
-
A man cycles past graffiti in the Tower Hamlets neighborhood in London, Friday, July 22, 2022. (AP)
As living costs in the UK skyrocket, young adults face increasing exploitation risks. A new poll which was launched by the UK's largest children's charity, Barnardo's, showed that six in ten parents will face challenges in affording to register their children in clubs and activities, taking time off work, and even going on family outings.
Due to the challenges faced by the adults, a record number of children will be at risk of sexual or criminal exploitation this summer, as they will lack supervision in the virtual and outside world.
Experts, reported by The Guardian, believed that over five million youngsters across England and Wales are considered to be under "great risk."
Children are at risk of exploitation as families can’t afford school holiday activities.
— Barnardo’s (@barnardos) June 1, 2023
🟢1 in 5 parents won't afford time off work to spend with their children
🟢7 in 10 children will spend more time online during the upcoming holidays
Read more 👇https://t.co/LuoCBmCTdc
An expert at Barnardo's explained that the economic situation in the UK has been further pushing a large number of families into poverty, forcing parents to work more hours and consequently leaving children unsupervised and increasingly vulnerable to criminal gangs.
“At the moment, the easiest way for the [young people I support] to get extra money to have a bit of food, hot water, put the electric on, is doing drug dealing,” the expert, cited by The Guardian, noted.
A teenager aged 19, cited by The Guardian, explained that due to the lack of supervision resulting from the difficult economic situation, he grew up in a “trap house”, which is a location from which a number of drug dealers conduct their operations. He said “‘Trap’ is exactly the right word for it because that’s the reality – you’re trapped into a never-ending cycle,” adding that “When people say this lifestyle can be horrific, it really is. You end up trusting no one and never feel truly safe.”
According to Barnardo's senior policy adviser, Jess Edwards, exploiting young adults and teenagers often happens so smoothly that the exploited seldom realize the direction in which they're going. “A seemingly simple offer of gifts, food, or drink at a time of need can quickly be leveraged by criminals into a cycle of debt or exploitation,” said the adviser.
UK going into recession in less than two years
Brexit will be memorialized as a "historic economic error" that has damaged the UK's economy after having helped inflation surge, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said.
The UK leaving the European Union led to higher consumer costs, and the country's economic policy has been for several years "substantially flawed", Summers said.
The former US economic chief underlined that Brexit "reduced the competitiveness of the UK economy, put downwards pressure on the pound and upwards pressure on prices, limited imports of goods and limited in some ways the supply of labor," which all culminated in higher inflation rates.
Read more: Data show UK economy flatlining, severely impacted by mass strikes
Summers also went all out on the Bank of England, holding it accountable for the surging inflation rates in the country, stressing that the country's Central Bank reinforced them through "very ill-judged monetary policies that were substantially too expansionary for too long."
He went on to highlight how the bank was on the right path to mitigating inflation, saying raising interest rates was required to cool red-hot inflation levels.
"Usually when you are prescribed a course of medication, even if the drugs are not so pleasant themselves, and even if they possibly have some side effects, it’s usually better to take the whole course of medicine, the first time it’s prescribed, than to stop taking the medicine early and wish a recurrence of the underlying infection."
Summer noted that he would be "surprised" if two years go by without the United Kingdom going into recession.
Read more: Bank of England may have to raise rates to 5% this summer
