Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children is a serious public health and human rights issue.

In June 2021, after thousands of young people had disclosed the prevalence of “rape culture” through the website Everyone’s Invited, Ofsted published a rapid review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges. This found that harmful sexual behaviours, such as some forms of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse, have become so commonplace that children and young people consider them normal and don’t see the point in reporting them.

MP Maria Miller (who was Chair of the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee at the time of publishing a landmark report in 2016 exposing sexual harassment abuse and violence in England’s schools) commented that this was a “massive safeguarding failure by Ofsted”. But is singling out institutions in the schools’ inspection framework the answer to this complex problem? And what can be done by educators and others working with young people to promote equality and respect?

Freedom From Abuse and Leigh Day present a conference that provides an in-depth look at these issues with contributions from leading experts in education leadership, violence prevention, law, and safeguarding, and a presentation from Dr Gail Dines on the impact of porn on teen sexuality.

• 10:00 am – Alison Millar welcome note and the importance of conference discussion.
• 10:05 am – Dr Gail Dines (keynote) speaks on the impact of porn on teenage sex.
• 10:35 am – Louise Barraclough will be sharing her research on peer-on-peer abuse and porn.
• 10:55 am – Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blythe speaks on ‘VAWG – a whole system approach’
• 11:15 am – Graham Goulden speaks on the “power of silence” and empowering the bystander to call out violence in boys and men.
• 11:40 am – Andrew Hampton presents ‘Working with Boys - creating cultures of mutual respect in schools’ with James Wilding providing insight into tackling peer-on-peer abuse amongst girls in education.
• 12:15 pm – Andrew Lord speaks on peer-on-peer abuse court cases.
• 12:35 pm – Q&A segment.
• 12:50 pm – Marilyn Hawes gives closing remarks.

Date: Thursday 12 May 2022 Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm RSVP: Copy and paste the Zoom link below

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3916481348804/WN_7hUIlC5nQTaEepeFWNCYWQ

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