UK MPs told of school rape and sexual harassment
Children as young as six suffer sexual violence in school, MPs heard during a debate on the issue in Parliament.
Tory MP Maria Miller said one mother had told her that her six-year-old was raped by a classmate but her teachers dismissed it as "playful activity".
Another parent told her his daughter had been raped at school.
Minister for Women Anne Milton said parents who felt their child was unsafe should go to children's social care and there remained "much more to do".
The government also said it would issue more guidance to schools on dealing with sexual harassment.
They need more than guidance. They need a law making it illegal not to report a sexual assault to police.
Thursday's debate followed a report published last year which suggested sexual harassment among pupils had become "normalised".
Ms Miller, chairman of the Women and Equalities Committee, said the incident involving the six-year-old was not recorded centrally because the child was under the age of criminal responsibility.
She said the second parent had said girls as young as 12 were encouraging each other to send sexual images of themselves to their peer group and were encouraged to have anal sex by their classmates.
'Epidemic of abusive photos'
Labour MP John Mann described an "epidemic of abusive sexual photographs of girls being circulated on a daily basis around schools" and suggested "schools and teachers have no idea what to do about the problem".
Of course they don't, because there is no moral imperative. They teach sex education as though sex is quite normal at almost any age instead of teaching the benefits of virtue and modesty. They probably don't know the benefits of virtue and modesty.
He said: "I get very depressed by the numbers of people - usually of women - who come to see me and I find out what happened to them at school.
"Their parents do not know, they have no idea whatever. These women will not have reported to the police the fact that they have been raped. The volume is so incredibly profound that we have an epidemic in this country."
The debate follows a Women and Equalities Committee hearing last month where schools minister Nick Gibb admitted current guidance does not stop children who sexually abuse other pupils being put back in the same classroom as their victim.
However Mr Gibb said this situation should not happen and said the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance could include this when it is revised this year.
In September 2015, a BBC investigation revealed there were 5,500 sexual offences recorded in UK schools between 2011 and 2014. Among these were nearly 4,000 alleged physical sexual assaults and more than 600 rapes, figures from Freedom of Information requests showed.
At least a fifth of offences were carried out by children on children, but details of the rest of the assaults are not known.
Since last year's report, the Children and Social Work Act (2017) has made relationships education for all primary school children and relationships and sex education for all secondary school children compulsory.
Ms Miller called for more "urgency" from government to tackle the issue. Even when statutory guidance is issued to schools, it will still take a full academic year to come into force, she said.
'Not sufficient'
Minister for Women Anne Milton said she hoped new draft regulations and guidance on relationships and sex education would be published in 2018. However she said this alone was "not sufficient" and "all schools have a legislative duty to safeguard and protect children".
She added: "In a serious situation - a number of serious and harrowing situations have been raised today - if parents or carers do not think that a child is safe, they should go to children's social care.
"Alternatively, if a parent or carer feels that a school is not fulfilling its duty because either it is not following its policies or it has inadequate policies, there is a whistleblowing line with Ofsted and the NSPCC."
Authorities missed 14 opportunities to stop children being abused in rural Somerset
This despite two teenagers having abortions after being
groomed by Turkish men at their barber shop
And they are not talking about getting their hair done!
A number of agencies failed to recognise and prevent the exploitation of at least nine teenagers in Somerset, it has been revealed.
The serious case review comes after two Turkish men were jailed last year for a total of 32 years after being convicted for rape and sexual offences against six children aged 14 and 15.
Authorities missed 14 opportunities to prevent the abuse of two of the teenagers, who sparked the initial review - who believed they were in a loving relationship with the men, legitimising the sustained abuse.
Both girls fell repeatedly pregnant and had a number of forced abortions and miscarriages, as well as being subject to physical and emotional abuse during a four-year period in Yeovil.
Jailed: Mehmet Citak (left) and Ahmet Kurtyemez (right) used their workplace, a barber's in Yeovil, Somerset, as a base to have sex with underage girls - and the offering of services such as piercing and tattoos attracted children to the shop. Two teenagers they abused fell repeatedly pregnant and had a number of forced abortions
Mehmet Citak, then aged 34, and Ahmet Kurtyemez, then aged 29, were sentenced to 20 years and 12 years imprisonment respectively for offences committed between 2010 and 2014.
Citak and Kurtyemez were using their workplace, a barber's, as a base to have sex with underage girls and the offering of services such as piercing and tattoos attracted children to the shop.
The two girls, known as C and Q, gave birth to children fathered by Citak and believed they were in long-term relationships with him but instead were 'subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse as part of a controlling relationship'.
The Somerset Safeguarding Children Board report found that 14 opportunities were missed by Avon and Somerset Police, the Clinical Commissioning Group, Yeovil District Hospital, Somerset Partnership Trust (CAMHS), and Somerset County Council.
The report highlights a number of failings in the care of the two girls involved in the case: 'What is surprising though is that even when the age difference of the sexual partner was known by police and social care to be 10+ years, no action was taken purely on this basis.
What is surprising though is that even when the age difference
of the sexual partner was known by police and social care
to be 10+ years, no action was taken purely on this basis
'Moreover, when the girls lied and gave ages variously three to seven years old (older), this was accepted without reporting concern.'
Frances Nicholson, Cabinet member for Children and Families at Somerset County Council said:
'This report makes very difficult reading and will bring home the uncomfortable truth that this form of child abuse - like all other forms - takes place everywhere, including Somerset.
'It is clear that all the agencies had lessons to learn and that the system as a whole did not respond well enough to protect and support these young people.
'The report covers a period several years ago and this issue is now much better understood and considerable improvements have been made in the way agencies respond together.'
Julian Wooster, the Director of Children's Services for Somerset County Council apologised for the shocking failings.
There were 14 different chances to identify and stop the abuse -
but all agencies missed them
Mr Wooster says a number of people who failed the system no longer work for the council.
Lack of safeguarding at tattoo and piercing parlours - which attract children - is 'major concern'
The lack of safeguarding arrangements around tattoo and piercing parlours, which frequently attract children, is of major concern, an independent inquiry has found.
Licensing and registration of such premises should not just focus on health and safety but also consider measures to prevent children falling victim to sexual exploitation, according to the serious case review.
Report author Edi Carmi wrote: 'Given the current fashion for both piercing and tattoos, children are likely to be attracted to premises where these are done.
'Given the potential vulnerability of the individual subject to such procedures, especially in relation to genital and nipple piercing, the lack of safeguarding arrangements around such premises is of major concern.
'On looking into arrangements for piercing, the review team were surprised to learn that arrangements for registration focus on health and safety issues, but there are no criteria about the training of either piercing or tattooing practitioners, and that the safeguarding of children does not feature in the registration process.
'It is not known to what extent there are concerns about safeguarding in piercing and tattooing premises, but given the underlying lack of standards relating to safeguarding in the registration process and the lack of subsequent inspections, this is not surprising.'
The report identified some shortcomings in the early stages of the police investigation in Somerset but also highlighted its successes once fully under way. It praised how officers learned from colleagues working on Operation Brooke in Bristol, another child sexual exploitation investigation which led to the jailing of 13 men.
Earlier this year, Ofsted said the county council's children's services department was making 'satisfactory progress' since an inadequate inspection rating in 2015.
Detective Superintendent Will White, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: 'The serious case review recognises the lessons we learnt from Operation Brooke and how we sought to implement this learning in our approach to the exploitation that was happening in Yeovil.
'We're now much better at spotting the links, joining up the intelligence and, alongside our partners, seeing a fuller picture, but we're by no means complacent.'
I'm not sure if the concerns of Maggie Siviter were listed among the 14 missed opportunities, but they should have been. Maggie was forced out of her job as lead for child safeguarding for raising the issue to Ofsted.
North Somerset, UK
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