Wiltshire parents urged to 'be nosy' to prevent child criminal exploitation
Youth Mentor Rhys wants others to avoid the same traps he fell into
Parents across Wiltshire are being urged to be nosy about what their children are up to this weekend.
The call comes from Youth Mentor Rhys - who was exploited by criminal gangs as a child - in a bid to prevent others falling into the same trap he did.
He now works with charity Escapeline and is part of the Police's Spot the Signs campaign, which aims to end Child Criminal Exploitation.
Rhys told us nosy parents are the best parents.
"We need to give children privacy, but there's a difference between privacy, letting them have space in their bedroom, to then not knowing who they're hanging around with and stuff like that," he said.
Rhys shared his story with us earlier this week, as he works to protect young people from the harm caused by being exploited by county lines gangs.
He's issued some advice on signs criminal gangs could be taking advantage of our children.
Rhys said: "If your son or daughter's playing football or doing dance lessons and then all of a sudden they're not doing that anymore and they're not hanging around with the people that they was previously, and their friendship group has changed, that would be the key indicator that something's not quite right."
He also stressed the partnership working between Escapeline and Police is a key ingredient for protecting young people from criminal gangs.
Rhys said: "If you look at a county line gang, they're very good at linking up with people and doing collaborative work.
"It's very important that professionals do twice as much as in the sense of linking up with people, sharing information, getting that message out there just so that we can combat what we're up against."
His call for collaboration stretches to parents and carers too, with the call for nosiness in what our children are doing.