Protecting children from grooming and sexual abuse

If you work or volunteer in sports or physical activity, it's essential to be aware of how some individuals that want to harm and abuse children. These individuals may behave and manipulate children and the “safe” adults around children.

This is known as ‘grooming’. By understanding how this process of manipulation and entrapment happens, you can take steps to prevent children from being sexually harmed.

• about grooming
• how grooming happens
• signs of grooming in sport
• children at risk of grooming
• preventing grooming

About grooming 

The term 'grooming' is commonly used to describe the process of entrapping and preparing a child, the adults around them, and even the environment to enable abuse to take place. Grooming is a core part of many cases of sexual abuse, but children and young people can also be groomed for radicalisation or criminal exploitation.

Sexual abuse can happen anywhere, including in sports and community clubs or organisations, online and even in public spaces. Recognising this is often the first step to preventing a child or young person from being harmed.

Grooming may mean:

• not believing it could happen in your organisation setting
• not wanting to believe it could be someone you know
• not having enough awareness of the possibility of abuse
• not noticing the signs of abuse or, thinking it is something else
• not seeing the signs, a child is giving you

Sports coaches, staff and volunteers are not responsible for deciding whether lower-level concerns or abuse is occurring, but they are responsible for responding promptly to any concerns received and to recognise and responding to this promptly.

How grooming happens

People who set out to harm children use a range of tactics to trick and entrap them, including:

• seeking access – looking for jobs or volunteer roles with regular contact with children and finding organisations with unclear boundaries and policies
• testing the culture – breaking small rules to see if they’re challenged about their behaviour. If unchallenged, they can start to take these policy breaches further
• building trust – giving advice, attention or gifts to build a trusting relationship with the child and sometimes the whole family or volunteers. They appear respectable and even indispensable to other adults, creating dependency so the club couldn’t operate without them
• exploiting power – using a power imbalance to take control and make a child feel dependent or isolated, for example influencing how a child progresses in their sport by allocating or limiting training time or facilities
• keeping secrets – using secrets to control, frighten or test how the child complies, giving the child feelings of shame and to encourage their silence
• manipulation – using reverse psychology or strategic withdrawal to trick the child into thinking they are in control of the situation. Making the child feel they could have stopped the abuse earlier and increasing the guilt for the child
• online communication – using social media and messaging apps to manipulate a child, pretending to be someone they are not, pressuring a child into sending pictures and threatening to share them. This means grooming can take place away from your organised sport or activity and progress quicker

Signs of grooming in sport

Signs a child is being abused in a sports or physical activity environment may include:

• sudden changes in participation
• avoiding training, sessions, games, matches or events
• changes in behaviour such as becoming withdrawn, upset, or being unable to focus 
• fear of certain places or areas
• fear of certain people

Other signs may be more noticeable away from the sports, such as:

• sudden changes in behaviour, such as spending more or less time online
• being absent or missing from home or school
• being secretive about how they’re spending their time
• unexplained gifts
• misusing alcohol or drugs having a friendship or relationship with a much older person
• developing sexual health problems
• using sexual language, you wouldn’t expect them to know
• being upset or withdrawn
• mental health problems

Children at risk of grooming

Sexual abuse can affect any child but abusers will target children who are vulnerable in a way they can exploit. Such as children in care, d/Deaf or disabled children, children with low self-esteem or experiencing difficulties with their peers or families.

These children may be more easily manipulated and isolated from the adults or friends who might otherwise protect them. This may just be a short-term vulnerability, for example moving house and joining a new club with no established friends, or death of a family member. A child may be vulnerable in sport because they depend on a particular individual to help them progress in the sport, or for their place in the team or squad.

Preventing grooming

These steps can help reduce the risk of grooming behaviour taking place in your sports club or organisation:

• follow safer recruitment procedures – including references and vetting checks for those all individuals working with children (staff and volunteers). This only reduces the risk of those already known to the authorities, but it also sends out a deterrent message
• enforce codes of conduct – those who want to harm children often begin by breaking small rules to test how an organisation is run. With solid codes of conduct, you can more easily challenge those small breaches of your rules, which can discourage potential abusers from going further. Respond to lower-level concerns every time they happen
• provide training and education – be consistent about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour, and make sure everyone has at least the minimum level of understanding of what is acceptable. This means individuals are more likely to have the confidence to raise any concerns or worries
• set out clear reporting steps – so everyone knows concerns will be handled correctly, in a proportionate manner and with confidentiality
• online safety – policies and codes of conduct include guidance on appropriate communication, particularly if your organisation uses apps to communicate with children or parents, and remind young people of the importance of how they communicate online and their own digital footprint
• listen to children – involving children and their opinions in decisions and hearing what they have to say, also means they are more likely to speak up if there is a problem
• have an open culture – by encouraging discussions about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour you give children with the language and opportunity to share concerns, and you make your organisation less appealing to those who would seek out vulnerable organisations to harm children