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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/sep/27/rochdale-child-sex-ring-children
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| The Rochdale child abuse case: a modern night out for kids | The Rochdale child abuse case: a modern night out for kids |
| (4 months later) | |
| It's 7 o'clock on a Thursday evening during the half-term holiday in a small market town in the middle of Yorkshire. I'm not naming the place for fear that it would attract the wrong sort, when there's a 'pop and crisps' night at the local nightclub. | It's 7 o'clock on a Thursday evening during the half-term holiday in a small market town in the middle of Yorkshire. I'm not naming the place for fear that it would attract the wrong sort, when there's a 'pop and crisps' night at the local nightclub. |
| Kay Kelly from Barnardo's Turnaround project, which works with children who are sexually exploited, knows about such times and places: | Kay Kelly from Barnardo's Turnaround project, which works with children who are sexually exploited, knows about such times and places: |
| The areas that are targeted are where young people hang out and are particularly vulnerable - under-16's discos and anywhere that predators know that there are lots of young people hanging around. Parents need to know what the vulnerabilities are; they need to know how to keep their kids safe. | The areas that are targeted are where young people hang out and are particularly vulnerable - under-16's discos and anywhere that predators know that there are lots of young people hanging around. Parents need to know what the vulnerabilities are; they need to know how to keep their kids safe. |
| The high profile cases always seems to focus in on race and it really worries us, because a young person will go off with a white guy and think its okay. It's just so dangerous and we would urge people not to think about it in those terms but to think about as a child protection issue. | The high profile cases always seems to focus in on race and it really worries us, because a young person will go off with a white guy and think its okay. It's just so dangerous and we would urge people not to think about it in those terms but to think about as a child protection issue. |
| Inside the club, hundreds of kids are chatting with friends and dancing their hearts out in more upmarket surroundings than the youth club down the road that the council had to close. It's always been the same – a scabby table tennis table and smelly community centre can't compare to the heady atmosphere of a club stinking of last night's happy hour. Tonight is much more lucrative – 400 kids on high energy drinks at £2.50 a pop. | Inside the club, hundreds of kids are chatting with friends and dancing their hearts out in more upmarket surroundings than the youth club down the road that the council had to close. It's always been the same – a scabby table tennis table and smelly community centre can't compare to the heady atmosphere of a club stinking of last night's happy hour. Tonight is much more lucrative – 400 kids on high energy drinks at £2.50 a pop. |
| Just like on TV, the club distinguishes between punters and VIP's – for a fiver, 12-year-olds wannabes access all areas and the orange squash runs freely. | Just like on TV, the club distinguishes between punters and VIP's – for a fiver, 12-year-olds wannabes access all areas and the orange squash runs freely. |
| Teenage girls in a place like this can have parents with deep pockets. A night like the one I'm visiting can gross several thousand pounds, mid week. Local taxi drivers wait in line for fares - night-time trade has been hit hard in this small northern town. Outside, lots more kids have left the club and gathered in the picturesque streets. Local restaurant owners stand like sentries with their arms crossed and lips pursed, lost for words: Such young girls, they say, shouldn't be out dressed like that. No-one really understands what's going on. They've worked for years to build up businesses that depend on a certain kind of clientele who are visibly put off their food by scores of scantily-clad 12 and 13-year-olds acting leery. | Teenage girls in a place like this can have parents with deep pockets. A night like the one I'm visiting can gross several thousand pounds, mid week. Local taxi drivers wait in line for fares - night-time trade has been hit hard in this small northern town. Outside, lots more kids have left the club and gathered in the picturesque streets. Local restaurant owners stand like sentries with their arms crossed and lips pursed, lost for words: Such young girls, they say, shouldn't be out dressed like that. No-one really understands what's going on. They've worked for years to build up businesses that depend on a certain kind of clientele who are visibly put off their food by scores of scantily-clad 12 and 13-year-olds acting leery. |
| It's like closing time on a Friday night in any city centre, except that it's Thursday in a respectable part of Yorkshire and so many of those involved are under 16. A group of young girls are hysterical. A fight's broken out although no-one knows why. The explanation is that the girl who started swinging punches without warning is a drunk and disorderly 13-year-old who's had a fight with her boyfriend. None of her friends batted a false eyelash. | It's like closing time on a Friday night in any city centre, except that it's Thursday in a respectable part of Yorkshire and so many of those involved are under 16. A group of young girls are hysterical. A fight's broken out although no-one knows why. The explanation is that the girl who started swinging punches without warning is a drunk and disorderly 13-year-old who's had a fight with her boyfriend. None of her friends batted a false eyelash. |
| The stench of alcohol is overpowering. It's in coke bottles and juice cartons, and it's obvious that a lot of these kids are as high as kites. What's not so obvious is why nothing is being done about it. One girls collapsed in the doorway of the club as bouncers attempt to locate her parents to collect her. Once they finally manage to shift her outside, it's a policing problem. They claim that older men buy the girls alcohol from the local supermarket. After all, they say, what man's going to refuse girls dressed like that. | The stench of alcohol is overpowering. It's in coke bottles and juice cartons, and it's obvious that a lot of these kids are as high as kites. What's not so obvious is why nothing is being done about it. One girls collapsed in the doorway of the club as bouncers attempt to locate her parents to collect her. Once they finally manage to shift her outside, it's a policing problem. They claim that older men buy the girls alcohol from the local supermarket. After all, they say, what man's going to refuse girls dressed like that. |
| Quite a few I'd say, judging by the number of parents waiting nearby at closing time, waiting to whisk their offspring to the safety of the line of waiting BMWs and Audis. It's not that long since they did the same thing after DD's (netmums-speak for Darling Daughter)'s first day at school or dried her eyes when she'd fallen over at the playpark. Now its all boys, and makeup. The collection of dressing up clothes is still in a trunk at the bottom of her bed but she's given up Snow White and turned into a pop princess . | Quite a few I'd say, judging by the number of parents waiting nearby at closing time, waiting to whisk their offspring to the safety of the line of waiting BMWs and Audis. It's not that long since they did the same thing after DD's (netmums-speak for Darling Daughter)'s first day at school or dried her eyes when she'd fallen over at the playpark. Now its all boys, and makeup. The collection of dressing up clothes is still in a trunk at the bottom of her bed but she's given up Snow White and turned into a pop princess . |
| Six-inch heels and padded bra from mum's wardrobe just looked funny and ridiculous when the girls were younger and tottering around at home playing dressing-up. Now the group of assembled mums don't know whether to laugh or cry; girls who don't want to be children but don't yet know what it means to be a woman have no idea how vulnerable they are. A 12-year-old girl tells me casually: | Six-inch heels and padded bra from mum's wardrobe just looked funny and ridiculous when the girls were younger and tottering around at home playing dressing-up. Now the group of assembled mums don't know whether to laugh or cry; girls who don't want to be children but don't yet know what it means to be a woman have no idea how vulnerable they are. A 12-year-old girl tells me casually: |
| losing your mobile phone is more problematic that losing your virginity these days. | losing your mobile phone is more problematic that losing your virginity these days. |
Another nods, and says: | Another nods, and says: |
| Most people lose theirs by the time they're 14, it's not a big deal. | Most people lose theirs by the time they're 14, it's not a big deal. |
But talk to them further and it's clear that this is bravado, what they feel appropriate to say. When I talk to them about the complexity of relationships, both agree that they want to wait until they are in a long-term relationship and that 'doing it upstairs at a party is just gross.' | But talk to them further and it's clear that this is bravado, what they feel appropriate to say. When I talk to them about the complexity of relationships, both agree that they want to wait until they are in a long-term relationship and that 'doing it upstairs at a party is just gross.' |
| So here are the 'tweenies' - young teenagers - exposed to a highly sexualised commercial world in which young people are produced as an object of desire. They don't stop to think how few people live like the glossy ones on TV. At this age girls just want to have fun. | So here are the 'tweenies' - young teenagers - exposed to a highly sexualised commercial world in which young people are produced as an object of desire. They don't stop to think how few people live like the glossy ones on TV. At this age girls just want to have fun. |
| The complexity and emotional instability involved is an obvious opening for child sex exploitation. A young boy – no more than 12 – asks me if I do pornography after inspecting my camera and organising a photoshoot on his mobile phone outside the takeaway. He looks confused when I say: No. He didn't understand why. The group of girls he was with agreed quietly that it was gross but without much conviction. Many had been asked to send topless photographs to boys in their Facebook group. No biggie. | The complexity and emotional instability involved is an obvious opening for child sex exploitation. A young boy – no more than 12 – asks me if I do pornography after inspecting my camera and organising a photoshoot on his mobile phone outside the takeaway. He looks confused when I say: No. He didn't understand why. The group of girls he was with agreed quietly that it was gross but without much conviction. Many had been asked to send topless photographs to boys in their Facebook group. No biggie. |
| I'm happy photographing in difficult circumstances but the eagerness with which these kids approach me and begin to start posing is frightening and I beat a hasty retreat. I'm not going to cause them any harm but the next guy...who knows? I'm so worried, I'd contacted the local police a few days earlier leaving my details offering to let them check the frames. It's appreciated. Any photographer working around young people gives cause for concern these days, and knowing where I am and what I'm doing is one less thing for an already overstretched, predominantly rural police force to deal with. | I'm happy photographing in difficult circumstances but the eagerness with which these kids approach me and begin to start posing is frightening and I beat a hasty retreat. I'm not going to cause them any harm but the next guy...who knows? I'm so worried, I'd contacted the local police a few days earlier leaving my details offering to let them check the frames. It's appreciated. Any photographer working around young people gives cause for concern these days, and knowing where I am and what I'm doing is one less thing for an already overstretched, predominantly rural police force to deal with. |
| Popular culture shapes the attitudes and choices of our young people in ways that we cannot pretend are not disturbing. That was the lesson I took home. And Kay Kelly says: | Popular culture shapes the attitudes and choices of our young people in ways that we cannot pretend are not disturbing. That was the lesson I took home. And Kay Kelly says: |
| When I was young you used to stand outside off-licenses and if anyone went past you'd ask them to get a pack of fags or something. It's a normal part of development for young people to take risks and push the boundaries a bit. They want to go out. They want a bit of excitement – all those things but within that they want to be safe. And they need to be safe. | When I was young you used to stand outside off-licenses and if anyone went past you'd ask them to get a pack of fags or something. It's a normal part of development for young people to take risks and push the boundaries a bit. They want to go out. They want a bit of excitement – all those things but within that they want to be safe. And they need to be safe. |
| Advice and Support in the North | Advice and Support in the North |
| The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre offer advice and guidance to children and parents here. Crimes of child sex exploitation can be reported here where there is also advice for professionals who are worried about a young person. In Bradford and across the North, Barnardo's offer advice, support and counselling - details here. In Leeds, Genesis offers support - details here. | The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre offer advice and guidance to children and parents here. Crimes of child sex exploitation can be reported here where there is also advice for professionals who are worried about a young person. In Bradford and across the North, Barnardo's offer advice, support and counselling - details here. In Leeds, Genesis offers support - details here. |
| Anne Czernik is a freelance photojournalist specialising in activism in the north of England. In her first piece here, she hears from Barnado's about pioneering work in Bradford. | Anne Czernik is a freelance photojournalist specialising in activism in the north of England. In her first piece here, she hears from Barnado's about pioneering work in Bradford. |
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