How to prevent child-on-child sexual abuse

Take steps to reduce the chances of child-on-child sexual abuse happening in your school. Understand the definitions and find out what staff need to know and do, as well as where to find more support.

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on 27 March 2025
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Contents
  1. Understand the definitions
  2. Make sure staff are aware of their responsibilities
  3. Display our poster to boost staff confidence around pupil disclosures
  4. Include child-on-child sexual abuse in your curriculum
  5. Make sure pupils feel comfortable to report incidents
  6. Seek specialist support

This article covers ways to reduce the risk of child-on-child sexual abuse occurring in your school. Read our article on responding to incidents of child-on-child sexual abuse if you need to deal with an incident right now.

Find out more about how to prevent all forms of child-on-child abuse in our other article.

Understand the definitions

Sexual abuse in all its forms is something you'll need to examine and address in your school.

Child-on-child abuse, including child-on-child sexual abuse is covered in depth in Keeping Children Safe In Education (KCSIE). All staff need to know how to identify and respond to it as soon as it occurs.

Child-on-child sexual abuse

Abuse in intimate personal relationships between children (this is sometimes known as 'teenage relationship abuse')  Sexual violence Sexual harassment Upskirting, which involves taking a picture under a person’s clothing without their permission, to obtain sexual gratification or cause the victim humiliation, distress or