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Category: Project

Description: Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), also sometimes referred to as child sexual exploitation (CSE) or child sexual abuse (CSA), has been reported to be a prevalent and widespread phenomenon, with increasing numbers being detected and reported over the past 10 years (UN, 2020; Laird et al., 2020). Evidence has also been increasing regarding negative health, psychosocial and developmental sequalae associated with CSEA (Matthews & Collins-Vezina, 2019; Danese & Tan, 2014; Hailes et al., 2019). In the context of the rapid development of immersive ‘eXtended Reality’ (XR) technologies, which serve to 'blur the line between the real world and virtual environments' (Huang, 2022: 472), including Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR), there has been concern about the potential for increased CSEA offending and victimisation. Understanding the development and design of these environments alongside the potential safeguarding implications is crucial especially for ensuring current policy, legislation, strategies and guidance for safeguarding and prevention of CSEA across the UK are fit for purpose to respond to XR environments. There is also a need to ensure subsequent development of efficient and effective policy, guidance, strategies and legislation around safeguarding and prevention is evidence-informed in relation to protecting children in XR environments. Based on the above, we are looking to assess whether existing legislation, policy, guidelines and strategies issued across the UK are fit for purpose or whether there are key gaps emerging that may hinder effective safeguarding and prevention in XR environments and thus require revision/updates. More specifically, we are focusing on exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the aforementioned legislation, policies and guidelines on the issue of detection, prevention and response of CSEA in XR environments.