Public Awareness Campaign
IICSA · The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · Issued 20 October 2022 · Addressed to: UK Government
Government responseUK Government: Accepted in part (May 2023)
DeliveryHome Office says in progress (Jan 2026)UK Government says in progress (Apr 2025)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, K.2
The Inquiry recommends that the UK government and the Welsh Government commission regular programmes of activity to increase public awareness about child sexual abuse and the action to take if child sexual abuse is happening or suspected in England and in Wales. The programmes should: challenge myths and stereotypes about child sexual abuse; make maximum use of different approaches including, but not limited to, public information campaigns, the use of positive role models and creative media, such as television drama; and be supported by continuous evaluation to measure their impact.
IICSA, The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 20 Oct 2022 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
Home Office Minister Jess Phillips stated in a January 2026 written answer that targeted programmes were being supported to raise public awareness, including the #LookCloser, Stop It Now!, and ENOUGH campaigns (Jess Phillips, Jan 2026). HM Government had previously reported in an April 2025 progress update that work was in progress to step up national communications activity (Home Office, Apr 2025). In May 2023, it had accepted the recommendation in principle, noting that it would continue exploring effective ways to raise awareness (Home Office response, May 2023).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.
Government response
●UK Government · Accepted in part · 22 May 2023
We accept the importance of bringing child sexual abuse out of the shadows and creating more national awareness of the scale and nature of the issues and how to report concerns and cases of child sexual abuse. We have funded and delivered several public awareness campaigns and will continue to explore the most effective ways of raising awareness of child sexual abuse.
Extract from: Government response to the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
Delivery
●Home Office says in progress · 21 Jan 2026
The Government is committed to raising public awareness about the scale and impacts of child sexual abuse and is supporting several targeted programmes to achieve this, including the #LookCloser campaign, aiming to raise awareness of all forms of child exploitation, and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s Stop It Now! Online Deterrence campaign and its services to prevent offending. As part of the Government’s commitment to halve VAWG in a decade, we are also supporting the ENOUGH campaign, a long-term national programme of behaviour change campaigns to deliver a generational shift in the awareness, attitudes, and behaviours underpinning abuse.
●UK Government says in progress · 9 Apr 2025
The Government is committed to continue raising public awareness about the scale and impacts of child sexual abuse and will take the following steps in response: We will step up national communications activity to raise awareness of child sexual abuse throughout the next year and beyond.
From: Tackling child sexual abuse: progress update (accessible version)
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