‘Bullied because I’m Chinese’: children in UK whitening skin to avoid racial hate crimes
- Charity says racial abuse and bullying of children in UK has risen by a fifth since 2015-16
Children in Britain are whitening their skin to try to avoid a rising tide of racial hate crimes, in which even babies under one year old have been targeted, a charity has said.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said racial abuse and bullying of children had risen by one-fifth since 2015-16 to more than 10,000 incidents recorded by police last year.
The charity said some callers to Childline, its telephone help service, had tried to change their appearance by using make-up to whiten their skin.
Some children told counsellors they kept their pain a secret from their parents because they did not want to upset them.
The NSPCC figures were compiled from freedom of information requests to police forces across the UK. The charity said children aged 12 to 15 were most likely to be affected.
It found that in 2017-18 there were 10,571 offences recorded by police as race hate crimes against children under the age of 18, about 29 a day.