Levels of child exploitation have peaked in the UK, resembling similar conditions to the Victorian era. A lack of youth facilities and school exclusions have created a vacuum between the “school gate and the front door” that drug gangs are quickly taking advantage of to exploit children.In 2019, a total of 1,739 adults and children were recorded to be living in modern slavery, compared to 180 cases in January 2016. According to police records in 2019, 638 children under the age of 18 were criminally exploited during a period of just three months; drug gangs were at the root of most of these cases. This figure is 94.5% higher than the previous year, with British nationals as the majority of young people in modern slavery.