What is child abuse?

Neglect

This is the ongoing failure to meet a child's basic needs. Basic needs include having enough food, having clean clothes, shelter, and supervision. It also includes having an education and receiving proper health care. Neglect can have long term effects on a child or young person's physical and mental wellbeing.

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Physical Abuse

This is when someone hurts a child on purpose. It may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, scalding, drowning, suffocating. It can also be caused when a parent/carer makes up the symptoms of, or deliberately causes a child to become unwell. In sport it may be when a child is forced into training and competition which exceeds what their body is safely capable of.

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Emotional Abuse

This is any type of abuse that involves the ongoing emotional mistreatment of a child. It's sometimes called psychological abuse. It may involve making a child feel worthless or unloved or not giving them opportunities to express their views. It can also be isolating or ignoring a child or frequently making fun out of them or making them feel frightened.

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Sexual Abuse

This involves forcing or tricking a child or young person to take part in sexual activities. The child or young person may or may not be aware that what is happening is wrong. There are two types of sexual abuse – contact and non-contact. Contact abuse includes sexual touching, forcing a child to take part in sexual activities or making a child touch someone else. Non-contact abuse includes showing a child sexual images or videos, exposing a child to sexual acts or making them masturbate. It can also be making, viewing or distributing child abuse images or grooming a child in preparation of abuse. Sexual abuse can happen in person or online.

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Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse is any type of controlling, bullying, threatening or violent behaviour between people. It can happen between people who are or have been in a relationship. It can also happen between adults related to one another. Children and young people are often witness to this. It can seriously harm children and young people, and experiencing domestic abuse is child abuse.

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Bullying

Is behaviour which is intended to hurt someone either emotionally or physically. It's usually repeated over a long period of time. Bullying can often be aimed at certain people because of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation or disability. It can happen anywhere – at school, at home or online.

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Child Exploitation

Child Criminal Exploitation (including being involved in a gang) is child abuse where children and young people are manipulated or pressured into committing crimes such as stealing or carrying drugs or weapons.

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Child Sexual Exploitation is a type of sexual abuse. When a child or young person is exploited, they're given things like gifts, drugs, money, status and affection, in exchange for performing sexual activities.

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Grooming

Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. It can take place over a short or long period of time and can happen in person or online. Groomers may also build a relationship with the young person's family or friends to make them seem trustworthy.

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Online Abuse

Online abuse is abuse that happens via the use of a device such as computers, gaming consoles, tablets and mobile phones. And it can happen anywhere online, including: social media, text messages and messaging apps, emails, online chats, online gaming and live-streaming sites.

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