Lois McLatchie Miller is Senior Legal Communications Officer for ADF UK, a legal advocacy organisation that promotes freedom of speech.
A fear of being branded “racist” or “Islamophobic” prevented authorities from prosecuting the perpetrators of brutal gang rapes and murders enacted against countless white working-class girls in the horrendous British “grooming gangs” scandal, brought to the world’s attention by Elon Musk this month.
The real-life horror story has fast been adopted as a talking point on immigration. Unchecked preservation of a superficial “multi-culturalist” attitude wrecked the lives of countless young girls who deserved protection.
Certainly, the sacred cow of “diversity” was protected instead of basic human rights and safety. But news of the conviction of a homegrown pedophile ring in Glasgow – who sexually abused children while hosting regular “rape nights” over the course of 7 years – proves that there are other factors at play than only immigration. Whether from home or abroad – how has this evil been allowed to thrive?
A second sacred cow prevented the harms perpetrated upon children from being recognised as non-consensual. In our learned age, one must not question the sexual practices of girls. A damning review of authorities in Greater Manchester found that the scantily-clad teen victims were “bringing it on themselves with their own behaviour.”
We have been so desensitized as a society that the sexual activity of a fourteen-year-old barely raises an eyebrow. In an era where consent has become all that matters, we seem to have forgotten that a child cannot consent, ever. Didn’t sexual health clinics find it odd that thousands of children in deprived communities turned up asking for contraception, abortions, or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases?
Instead of protecting children from sex and promoting abstinence, the West has bred an attitude of “teens will be teens”, focusing efforts of avoiding pregnancy, rather than preserving innocence and preventing sexual activity.
This attitude has been brewing for decades. In 1985, Catholic housewife Victoria Gillick went to court to ensure her teenage daughters would not be given contraceptives without her knowledge. She lost, and as a result, new guidelines were drawn up in the British public sector under which underage sex would be tolerated, so long as teen pregnancy was avoided.
In the mid-2000s, Sue Axon, another mother fought in court for the right of parents to know if their underage daughters were being given abortion advice – and lost. A child’s right to confidentially, it was deemed, trumped a parent’s right to parent.
Unlike other European countries like Portugal, Spain, and Italy, the current law states that if a girl below the age of 16 has an abortion, there is no requirement for medical professionals to inform either her parents or the authorities. A handful of MPs have recently called on Wes Streeting to change this.
With children below the age of consent “empowered” to access abortions and contraceptives with no parental oversight, the rape gangs that arrived in broken cities found fertile ground for the exploitation of girls.
A Serious Case Review in Rochdale found that “the drive to reduce teenage pregnancy… is believed to have contributed to a culture whereby professionals may have become inured to early sexual activity in young teenagers”. Torbay’s Serious Case Review observed: ‘Underage sexual activity by young people between 13 and 16 years old is judged on the perception that if it takes place with partners of a similar age, it is by mutual consent. This perception has to be reconsidered in light of the growing evidence in this case that the abusers were not much older than the girls.’
Yet instead of taking measures to ensure the age of consent is taken more seriously, abortion and sexual health clinics are pushing in the opposite direction – focusing on privacy and ease of access over safeguarding. Last summer, MSI Reproductive Choices launched a new digital platform called the “Vagina Privacy Network”, distributing a guide on how to get abortions without parents or family members knowing.
Meanwhile, both BPAS and MSI continue to champion the “Pills by Post” scheme, which allows anyone to order abortion pills to their home without any in-person consultation if they claim they are over 16, and under 10 weeks pregnant. Abortion providers have little-to-no means to verify a person’s true age, or whether an abuser – posturing as a “boyfriend” – is sitting threateningly on the other side of the phone line.
Immigration policy may have strongly contributed to endangering young female victims of grooming gangs – but the sexual “emancipation” of pubescent teens made these girls especially vulnerable to exploitation. Britain might technically have an “age of consent” embedded in law, but unless we uphold it, no safeguarding will be possible to save our girls.
Lois McLatchie Miller is Senior Legal Communications Officer for ADF UK, a legal advocacy organisation that promotes freedom of speech.
A fear of being branded “racist” or “Islamophobic” prevented authorities from prosecuting the perpetrators of brutal gang rapes and murders enacted against countless white working-class girls in the horrendous British “grooming gangs” scandal, brought to the world’s attention by Elon Musk this month.
The real-life horror story has fast been adopted as a talking point on immigration. Unchecked preservation of a superficial “multi-culturalist” attitude wrecked the lives of countless young girls who deserved protection.
Certainly, the sacred cow of “diversity” was protected instead of basic human rights and safety. But news of the conviction of a homegrown pedophile ring in Glasgow – who sexually abused children while hosting regular “rape nights” over the course of 7 years – proves that there are other factors at play than only immigration. Whether from home or abroad – how has this evil been allowed to thrive?
A second sacred cow prevented the harms perpetrated upon children from being recognised as non-consensual. In our learned age, one must not question the sexual practices of girls. A damning review of authorities in Greater Manchester found that the scantily-clad teen victims were “bringing it on themselves with their own behaviour.”
We have been so desensitized as a society that the sexual activity of a fourteen-year-old barely raises an eyebrow. In an era where consent has become all that matters, we seem to have forgotten that a child cannot consent, ever. Didn’t sexual health clinics find it odd that thousands of children in deprived communities turned up asking for contraception, abortions, or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases?
Instead of protecting children from sex and promoting abstinence, the West has bred an attitude of “teens will be teens”, focusing efforts of avoiding pregnancy, rather than preserving innocence and preventing sexual activity.
This attitude has been brewing for decades. In 1985, Catholic housewife Victoria Gillick went to court to ensure her teenage daughters would not be given contraceptives without her knowledge. She lost, and as a result, new guidelines were drawn up in the British public sector under which underage sex would be tolerated, so long as teen pregnancy was avoided.
In the mid-2000s, Sue Axon, another mother fought in court for the right of parents to know if their underage daughters were being given abortion advice – and lost. A child’s right to confidentially, it was deemed, trumped a parent’s right to parent.
Unlike other European countries like Portugal, Spain, and Italy, the current law states that if a girl below the age of 16 has an abortion, there is no requirement for medical professionals to inform either her parents or the authorities. A handful of MPs have recently called on Wes Streeting to change this.
With children below the age of consent “empowered” to access abortions and contraceptives with no parental oversight, the rape gangs that arrived in broken cities found fertile ground for the exploitation of girls.
A Serious Case Review in Rochdale found that “the drive to reduce teenage pregnancy… is believed to have contributed to a culture whereby professionals may have become inured to early sexual activity in young teenagers”. Torbay’s Serious Case Review observed: ‘Underage sexual activity by young people between 13 and 16 years old is judged on the perception that if it takes place with partners of a similar age, it is by mutual consent. This perception has to be reconsidered in light of the growing evidence in this case that the abusers were not much older than the girls.’
Yet instead of taking measures to ensure the age of consent is taken more seriously, abortion and sexual health clinics are pushing in the opposite direction – focusing on privacy and ease of access over safeguarding. Last summer, MSI Reproductive Choices launched a new digital platform called the “Vagina Privacy Network”, distributing a guide on how to get abortions without parents or family members knowing.
Meanwhile, both BPAS and MSI continue to champion the “Pills by Post” scheme, which allows anyone to order abortion pills to their home without any in-person consultation if they claim they are over 16, and under 10 weeks pregnant. Abortion providers have little-to-no means to verify a person’s true age, or whether an abuser – posturing as a “boyfriend” – is sitting threateningly on the other side of the phone line.
Immigration policy may have strongly contributed to endangering young female victims of grooming gangs – but the sexual “emancipation” of pubescent teens made these girls especially vulnerable to exploitation. Britain might technically have an “age of consent” embedded in law, but unless we uphold it, no safeguarding will be possible to save our girls.