The cost-of-living crisis has seen criminal gangs in the UK groom young children into their ranks by buying them food, child safety experts have said.
In one case, a schoolchild who couldn’t afford lunch was bought fast food, while another was targeted with sweets and magazines, Parliament’s Education Committee was told on Tuesday.
MPs heard shocking oral evidence from a range of child protection and trafficking experts on the growing number of young people being groomed into county lines gangs.
They said the COVID-19 pandemic had led to a surge in online grooming for trafficking and exploitation purposes, and how some criminals used social media to post ads to recruit vulnerable children….