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How to prevent child-on-child abuse

Understand what child-on-child abuse is and steps you can take to reduce the risk of it happening in your school. Find guidance and resources, and know where to go for extra support.

Last reviewed on 29 January 2026See updates
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 35774
Contents
  1. Understand what child-on-child abuse is 
  2. Put procedures in place to minimise the risk of child-on-child abuse
  3. Provide appropriate and regularly updated staff training
  4. Make sure staff challenge inappropriate behaviours
  5. Create a preventative curriculum programme
  6. Consider your context and work with local partners
  7. Seek specialist support
  8. What is Ofsted looking for?

Understand what child-on-child abuse is 

Child-on-child abuse is most likely to include, but may not be limited to:

  • Bullying (including cyber-bullying, prejudice-based and discriminatory bullying)
  • Physical abuse such as hitting, kicking, shaking, biting, hair pulling or otherwise causing physical harm (this may include an online element, which facilitates, threatens and/or encourages physical abuse)
  • Initiation/hazing-type violence and rituals, which could include activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group, and may also include an online element
  • Child-on-child sexual abuse, which includes:
    • Abuse in intimate relationships between peers (sometimes known as 'teenage relationship abuse')
    • Sexual violence and sexual harassment
    • Causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent
    • Upskirting, which typically involves taking a picture under a person’s clothing without their permission, to obtain sexual gratification or cause the victim humiliation, distress or alarm
    • Consensual and non-consensual sharing of nude and semi-nude images and/or videos (also known as sexting or youth-produced sexual imagery)