Stalking and harassment offences were among a handful that rose during the pandemic. The Office of National Statistics has found that during the coronavirus, stalking and harassment offences increased by 31% and Paladin, a national anti-stalking service, has said that their requests for help have leapt 40% during the first lockdown.

A real way to protect individuals is improving training for young people within schools. The Safety Box® went to an independent South London girl school this week to teach about the risk of stalkers and attackers, and to give these girls practical tools in which they can use to protect themselves from these very real threats. As an independent school, students have to pay tuition fees, however, 40% of their students are on a Bursary which either reduces or possibly covers entire school fees. The foundation, that helps fund the school, makes available bursaries to support students from low-income families as part of its charitable commitments to the community and the education of children. Stalker awareness and personal protection training programmes are incredibly important and may not be something that these girls would have had access to before.

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is an important and necessary part of all pupils' education. All schools are now required to teach PSHE, drawing on good practice. At the Safety Box®, we offer a range of PHSE sessions dealing with a multitude of issues. This specific PSHE sessions, focusing on Stalker awareness, covered specific learning objectives, including, ways of identifying risk and managing personal safety in new social settings, workplaces, environments, and Online settings. As well as Strategies for identifying risky and/or emergency situations, in-person and online, and ways of getting the appropriate help and where there may be legal consequences. We also looked at positive and safe ways to create and share content online.

In London you won't be hard-pressed to find someone looking down at their phone screen while walking, however, during the session, the lead facilitator demonstrated the danger of doing this. A person only has around 25% of their visual field when looking down at their phones, meaning that if an attacker came up behind you it would be very difficult to see. Awareness was a major theme of the session; we stressed that awareness was one of the major factors that prevented the danger of attacks. Criminals and abusers often target people who are distracted on the road. Crimes can happen at any time and young people need to stay aware of their surroundings.

For a generation growing up in the digital age, this group of year 10's were very aware of online presence, image and behaviours, however, they knew shockingly little about how to protect themselves online. Stalking methods have become much more advanced, including hacking of phones and location tracking. Stalkers, child traffickers and attackers can use someone's IP address to track where a potential victim is located and can use this information to gain the victim's trust. We asked the girls how many of them had added people on social media that they didn't know, unsurprisingly more than half of the room had done exactly that. Thinking before posting was also an important theme, we stressed that sharing any personal information online is extremely risky. We don't always have control of who is viewing what we post so the best form of defence is being careful about what you post.

During the session the facilitators brought the room alive with dynamic demonstrations, getting the girls involved in role-playing different situations they might find themselves in. We started with a scenario on a bus, based on a true story from a girl that the Safety Box® had helped in the past. The setting revolved around a girl being assaulted on a bus, where an attacker held a knife to her back and told her not to react, he then proceeded to make her get off the bus with him. The facilitators asked the girls to show them what they would have done in that scenario, which was, predictably, just doing what the attacker had told them to do. We showed them an effective way of getting out of that dangerous situation and the power of using their voice. "MY voice is my first line of defence".

A lot of these girls make their own way home, and now that it is getting darker quicker, there is an added danger. There may come a time where the girls feel like they are being followed, in this event we wanted to equip the girls with some tools they can use to protect themselves. We role-played a scenario where the girls noticed someone watching them or following them.  This is called the green zone, and their behaviour may be able to deter an attacker from approaching them. If the girls see a potential stalker, trying to keep calm, getting on their phone and calling someone whether it be the police or a loved one. Letting them know where you are when you expect to arrive at your destination and taking up space in your surroundings can deter someone from approaching you.

This is the first of many PHSE sessions we will be doing with the school and all in all the girls were given realistic techniques that they could use to protect themselves.

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