County lines exploitation is changing - safeguarding must change with it

New data reported by The Guardian has revealed a significant rise in the number of girls being identified as victims of county lines exploitation.

For years, county lines has largely been understood through a narrow lens: boys being recruited, coerced and moved across regions to transport drugs for criminal networks. But that picture has always been incomplete.

What this latest data highlights is something safeguarding professionals have increasingly warned about - girls have always been vulnerable to county lines exploitation, but their experiences often look different, making them easier to overlook.

What this really means

For many girls, county lines may not begin with obvious criminal activity. It often starts through grooming, manipulation and emotional coercion. The “boyfriend model” remains one of the most recognised pathways, where trust, affection and dependency are deliberately used as tools of control before criminal exploitation takes hold.

This form of exploitation can be harder to identify because it doesn’t always fit the public perception of county lines. Instead of visible gang involvement or repeated travel, warning signs may appear through behavioural changes, secrecy, withdrawal, emotional distress, or unhealthy relationships.

If safeguarding systems continue to look for one type of victim, they will continue to miss others.

The wider safeguarding challenge

County lines is often treated as a policing issue, but by the time law enforcement becomes involved, exploitation has usually already escalated. The earlier warning signs tend to appear elsewhere - in schools, online, within friendship groups, on public transport, and in everyday routines. That means the responsibility for prevention sits far wider than policing alone.

Schools, local authorities, transport providers, employers and community organisations all play a role in creating environments where concerns can be recognised earlier and acted on more confidently.

…and perhaps one of the biggest challenges remains this: when exploitation is not recognised, children can be criminalised before they are protected.

imabi’s View: imabi Inspire

At imabi, we see county lines exploitation as a safeguarding issue that demands earlier visibility, stronger communication and better support pathways, particularly in education settings, where some of the earliest warning signs often emerge.

That is where imabi Inspire plays an important role.

Built for schools, colleges and education providers, imabi Inspire helps strengthen safeguarding by creating a more connected environment between students, staff and support systems. It provides access to trusted guidance, reporting pathways, wellbeing support and important safeguarding information - all in one accessible platform.

Alongside this, the wider imabi ecosystem, including Travel Guardian, helps extend that safeguarding beyond the school gates and into wider communities, workplaces and journeys.

By improving communication, increasing visibility of support, and making it easier to seek help or raise concerns, connected platforms like imabi Inspire help organisations strengthen their early intervention approach, before risk escalates into harm.

Source: The Guardian, April 2026