Corrie actress helping kids understand signs of grooming

Coronation Street actress Lucy Fallon features in a new Childline YouTube video aimed at helping young people understand the signs of grooming.

21 year old Lucy from Blackpool, worked with the NSPCC to research her current role in the ITV soap as 17-year-old Bethany Platt who has been groomed and sexually exploited by Nathan Curtis.

In the video Lucy discusses Bethany’s story with a Childline counsellor who offers advice aimed at helping young people recognise if they are being exploited in this way.

Last year the NSPCC’s Childline service held 2,340 counselling sessions about Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) with young people worried about issues such as grooming, trafficking and sexual harassment.

Lucy said: “Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a young person to gain their trust so they can force or trick them into doing something sexual. As we are seeing with Bethany’s story a young person may not understand that they are being groomed so it’s really important to raise awareness of this type of abuse.

“I’d encourage anyone who thinks they are being groomed to tell someone they trust or to contact Childline for free and confidential advice any time of day or night.”

Childline counsellor Helen Scarlett said: “Bethany’s story on Coronation Street shows how abusers exploit the vulnerabilities of their victims to increase their dependence on them and reduce the likelihood of them seeking help.

“Hopefully by talking about some of the signs of grooming we can help young people understand the difference between a healthy and unhealthy relationship and encourage them to speak out if they are worried about something that is happening to them or to someone else.”

Signs of grooming can include:

• A groomer may start off by giving you lots of attention and gifts but as time goes on they could become more controlling and threatening

• A groomer might message you in lots of different ways, for example through social media or text messaging and ask you to keep your conversations secret

• You might be invited to parties and given drugs and alcohol

• They might start sending you sexual messages. This might be subtle at first for example saying nice things about your appearance or your body

• They may try to blackmail you into sending sexual images of yourself by saying they'll be hurt or upset if you don’t or threaten to share images you’ve already sent

Children and young people can contact Childline for free confidential support and advice, 24 hours a day on 0800 1111 or at www.childline.org.uk