This article in the Telegraph highlights the shocking levels of sexual violence committed by children against other children in 21st Century Britain ‘unearthed’ by reports commissioned by Children’s Commissioner, Sue Berelowitz. The scale and nature of acts perpetrated amongst children across the UK apparently left researchers “aghast.” To many of the young people interviewed, and in fact to many of us who grew up in the UK and have spent any part of our adult lives working with British youth, the results of these enquiries are far less of a surprise, though no less alarming. The prominence of sex as a rite of passage for our young people now seems like old news, though twin advances in technology and the availability of sexual violence in pornography are thought to have set this generation of youngsters apart from their predecessors in their exposure to sexually motivated coercion, sexual assault and rape. These horrors have become the norm for many of our young people, though day-to-day reporting of these offences remains very rare. As one young girl says in the reports, “I’m used to it … It’s normal … It’s wrong, but you get used to it … Welcome to our generation”

What reasonable response is there to such widespread violence amongst our children? Only one that I can see – for us to welcome people wholeheartedly to our (re)generation. In my early 20s I found myself transitioning, by the grace of God, out of an avowedly hedonistic lifestyle and into the family of God as I found them in Queens Road Church, which years later was to become Everyday Church Wimbledon. A hugely important part of this transition for me was meeting, befriending and discipling young people who loved Jesus sincerely, and by his grace and the power of his Spirit were able to successfully negotiate the pitfalls of secondary school and university life: these guys & girls loved life and had great friends but I watched as they kept themselves purer than other kids, simply by walking close to Jesus. As I got to know them I was able to shake off a very strong sense of never wanting to bring children into a
world which seemed so full of ungodly pressures and temptations to very much wanting to raise kids as cool and strong as these. It’s been my joy to see many of them grow into men and women of beautiful character and a deeper-than-ever-love of God; now that God has blessed my wife & I with kids of our own I have every confidence in his ability to keep them safe and pure as they find their way through our seriously misaligned society. More than that, we hope & pray that our children – children who know that they are loved by the God of all things – will be the agents of massive change in our nation, not just in the future, but right now as they discover Jesus for themselves and go out in the strength of his love and power.

These reports are invaluable reading for anyone concerned about today’s children who will be the adults and parents of tomorrow. Please pray for our young people, pray for our Youth workers, pray for the many teachers and social workers in our church. Please also pray for God to give us more and more opportunities to serve the children and families in our communities as they experience a very 21st Century slice of life – one which is so frequently and dramatically starved of the love and grace that God longs to show them.

Philippians 2:14 to 16 
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain.

• Briefing for the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education, on the emerging findings of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups with a special focus on children in care (July 2012)
• “I thought I was the only one. The only one in the world.” The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation In Gangs and Groups, Interim report (November 2012)
• “Basically… porn is everywhere” A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the Effect that Access and Exposure to Pornography has on Children and Young People (May 2013)
• “If only someone had listened… Inquiry into Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups, Final Report (November 2013)
• “Sex without consent, I suppose that is rape” How Young People in England Understand Sexual Consent (November 2013)
•  “It’s wrong…but you get used to it” A qualitative study of gang-associated sexual violence towards, and exploitation of young people in England (November 2013).