Rape culture found in 1,600 primary schools, report reveals

22 March 2025, 16:29

An investigation revealed 1,664 primary schools, in the UK and Ireland, where pupils have submitted anonymous testimonies alleging rape culture.

The Everyone's Invited list, where victims can submit their testimonies, saw reports sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, groping and forced penetration during primary school aged five to 11.

The report by the campaign group claimed that nearly half of schoolchildren under seven are demonstrating misogynistic behaviours.

"Misogynistic rhetoric and harmful gender norms" are ingrained in children as early as nursery, wrote the camping group.

They also revealed that more than 60% of teachers reported children under nine had been exposed to pornography.

This comes as a report by the National Police Chief's Council found that child sexual abuse and exploitation increased by 400% from 2013 to 2024.

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One testimony read: "When I was five, another five-year-old boy at primary school started calling me beautiful and sexy (which I didn’t even know what it meant at the time).

"One day, he followed me into the toilets and smashed my head against the sink.

"I told my mum, and the school phoned her to tell her we were ‘just playing’ and said they would keep an eye on him.

"One day, he called me sexy then pushed me into the toilets again and tried to push my head down a toilet while grabbing me.

"I told a teacher after and they put me and the boy in the same room together. A teacher tried to downplay it, and say it wasn’t that bad (basically gaslighting a six-year-old for the sake of keeping their reputation).

"The boy wasn’t expelled. I left school, and learnt that he did it to another girl after I had left.”

Another read: "When I was 10, a boy told me one of the boys was going to lick my vagina. A boy said they would pay another boy £20 to rape me. I didn’t know what rape meant.

"I didn’t tell anyone. One of the boys in my year told their mum, who told mine. I went in for a meeting with the headteacher. She told me, ‘As women, we have to accept what men say to us’."

Primary school teachers often experienced "challenging and uncomfortable situations within the classroom", with 80% of teachers surveyed feeling ill-equipped to address these issues.

“Many are not trained beyond the legal minimum in safeguarding, which leaves them ill-equipped to respond to disclosures of sexual violence," the report found.

Everyone's Invited says it's dedicated to eradicating rape culture and education on relationships and sex should begin in nursery or reception.

It concluded that rape culture was "endemic" in primary schools.

It added that phones give children access "to the most extreme content possible with a click of a finger".

Founded in June 2020 by Soma Sara, a sex abuse survivor who previously exposed sexual abuse in schools and colleges.