One in nine teens subjected to sexual grooming, study finds

ONE in nine teenagers have been subjected to sexual grooming and three-quarters of those were under the age of 16 at the time, new research in the North has found.

The research involved 786 teenagers who completed the 2010 Young Life and Times (YLT) questionnaire, an annual survey of 16-year-olds undertaken in a joint initiative by Queen’s University and the University of Ulster.

It is the first time in the North that the area of sexual grooming and exploitation amongst teenagers has been included in the study.