VCCPme’s milestones of an average girl’s life show people where, when and how sexual abuse can happen to the girl next door by the boy up the road.
The ad for children’s charity, The Children’s Society asks for donations. In fact, it does a lot more than that. For many adults, it’s new learning. That might help a parent help a young person – their own young person. The years between 10 and 20 are when the openness of a child turns into the secret life of a teenager. The ad educates parents about how that life can go wrong.
As The Children’s Society’s new report Old Enough To Know Better? Why sexually exploited teenagers are being overlooked reveals, huge numbers of sex crimes against older teenagers in England and Wales in the last year went unreported and unpunished because many victims feared they wouldn’t be believed or were suspicious of the justice system.
Sam Miller, who won an Emmy for the British crime drama series, Luther, that is about to begin its new season, directed the short film.
“People think the dramas I work on feel pretty real and authentic-well this story is chillingly real. I wanted to be part of this project to show people what this horrific crime against children is really about and for them to know that they can do something to help these children,” Miller noted.
“VCCPme has made a powerful video helping us bring this urgent issue to the screen. This video is vital to our being able to draw attention to the what child sexual exploitation really is and raise the crucial funds we need to make sure we can help these children and keep more safe from being sexually exploited in the first place,” Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children’s Society commented.
The campaign kicked off on November 5 with a direct mail initiative. A full size milestones wall chart was sent out to key targets. The two minute film, revealing the growing pains and impact of sexual abuse on young people, is running online.
The video is available on The Children’s Society website. . It is part of the charity’s Seriously Awkward campaign which is calling on the Government to make sure that police have the means they need to protect 16 and 17 year olds from sexual exploitation, and that consent to take drugs and drink alcohol is never confused with consent to engage in sexual acts.
