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MNHQ

Would you show this video to your child? Watch a short film about some of the dangers teenagers may face if they run away from home and tell us what you think. £2 donation from Aviva to Railway Children for every watch/ comment

2 replies

AnnMumsnet · 10/04/2013 09:44

Railway Children have shared this which illustrates a shocking story of what can happen to a teenager if they run away & spend time alone on UK streets. Many do make it back home safely but some end up in very different situations, forced to take huge risks in order to survive.

As part of our campaign with charity Railway Children & Aviva - to raise awareness of the fact that one child is estimated to run away from home every five minutes in the UK - we'd like as many MNers as possible to watch the video then post what you think of it on this thread:

~ Would you share it with your teenage DC (if you have one/will have one soon!)?
~ Would you use it as a conversation starter about the topic of running away from home?
~ This has been classified as Cert 15 for cinema use, do you agree? At what age do you think it would be appropriate for children to see it?
~ Do you think the video should be shown at school?

For every view of the video and for every comment* Aviva will donate £2 to Railway Children.

Sadly, having a child run away from home is much more common that you think. It is estimated that one child runs away from home or care in the UK every five minutes - that amounts to 100,000 each year. Railway Children exists to not only help provide safety and support for these children but also to help educate young people on the risks and alternatives to running away from home, to prevent more from doing so.

If you would like to sign up to receive more information from Railway Children, you can do that here and this too will trigger an additional donation from Aviva.

If you've got any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thanks,
MNHQ

*At least 90 seconds.

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MNHQ

AnnMumsnet · 11/04/2013 15:54

Hello Thanks for all your comments so far.

Railway Children have asked us to pass on the following "Thank you for your questions/ queries regarding what happens to boys on the streets. You are right, this video shows the story of a teenage girl, but boys can be just as vulnerable. As you may have already seen on our ?running away? advice pages, research has shown that girls do tend to run away more often than boys ? though boys tend to run away for longer.

Boys can also be exploited by older men on the streets and we have seen cases of boys selling their bodies to get some food or somewhere to stay.

We at Railway Children are aware of the issues boys face, as well as girls, and through detached youth work and other forms of outreach, we work through our partners with both sexes to make sure issues such as exploitation and abuse are discussed with them, and that they are made aware of the dangers they face and how to avoid them.

If you?re interested in finding out more, you may be interested to read the results of some of our research www.railwaychildren.org.uk/media/26589/off_the_radar_summary.pdf"

MNHQ

carriemumsnet · 23/04/2013 12:26

Hi all

Thanks so much for all your valuable input - there are some really interesting thoughts and ideas and we may well come back to you to gather more opinions/ feedback in the future. Don't forget you can help contribute to this campaign by joining the dedicated Mumsnet Panel here, signing up to the Railway Children's newsletter here or finding out more here and each time you do one of these things Aviva will donate £2 to the Railway Children's valuable work.

In the meantime the Railway Children wanted to respond to some of your queries and have asked us to post the following message:

"Thanks to all who have posted thoughts, comments and questions on this thread. As you know we will be working with Mumsnet during the rest of the year to raise awareness of these issues and your feedback is extremely helpful and valuable to us in order to develop this campaign further.

We also wanted to provide some further stats and facts regarding the number of children and young people who have experienced the issues covered in the film. We will also be exploring the issue of the risks and consequences a child could experience if they run away from home and will be posting more information on the info pages here: www.mumsnet.com/runningaway in the next couple of weeks, so do check back for more.

'Off the Radar' research, a report carried out by Railway Children based on interviews with children and young people with first-hand experience of running away from home, found that:

  • Of the 103 young runaways interviewed all had used drugs or alcohol to varying degrees, with some as young as 9 years old using ecstasy, cannabis and cocaine, and some as young as 12 using heroin.
  • Just under a fifth had experienced sexual exploitation which took a number of forms; having sexual relations with older men and in one case a woman, being forced to have sex for money by a boyfriend, being shared for sex by groups of men and selling sex on the streets.

Sadly the link between running away and being sexually exploited is also backed up by other independent research:

  • A survey of young people using sexual exploitation services in 2011 found that over half had run away at least once, and a quarter had run away over 10 times - S Jago et al (2011) What's going on to safeguard children and young people from sexual exploitation? Univ of Bedfordshire, p48, p107.
  • An inquiry by the Office of the Children's Commissioner, in which they interviewed young people being sexually exploited in gangs and groups, found that 70% were going missing repeatedly.

Still Running 3 by The Children's Society found that:

  • 1 in 8 young runaways had stolen, 1 in 11 had begged and 1 in 9 had done 'other things' in order to survive after running away.
  • 1 in 6 runaways slept rough or stayed with someone they had only just met.'

Thanks again for your support."

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