Campaigners: ‘NSPCC trans guidance puts children at risk’

NSPCC guidance on changing rooms is putting children’s safety at risk, a campaign group has warned.

Women’s group Sex Matters said NSPCC advice based on gender rather than biological sex allows gender-confused children to change in facilities intended for the opposite sex.

In February, Childline – part of the NSPCC – was accused of allowing children to encourage their peers to obtain chest binders behind their parents’ back.

Biological reality vs gender ideology

Guidance from the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), published in 2022, states: “Using gendered changing facilities can be a source of stress for transgender and non-binary children.

“Sport and activity providers should consider how to support these young people to use the changing rooms that they feel comfortable with.”

It also describes it as “good practice to ensure that children are supervised by staff or volunteers of the same gender while changing”.

Sex Matters warned: “The guidance would lead to a boy being allowed to change with girls (and sometimes women) or a girl to change with boys (and sometimes men) in a changing room that is designated ‘single sex’, and being supervised by staff or volunteers of the opposite sex.”

Sports guidance from @NSPCC puts children at risk by encouraging them to use opposite-sex changing rooms, Sex Matters warns.

@Telegraph
https://t.co/XbqiHDVb2y

— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) September 14, 2024

Safeguarding risk

The group also criticised a 2024 NSPCC briefing that suggested schools move to ‘single gender’ changing rooms “as children get older”. The group argued the advice risked gender-confused girls being encouraged to change with boys.

In a letter to Education Minister Janet Danby, Sex Matters said: “Remembering what sex children are is crucial to safeguarding children.”

It added that the CPSU guidance in particular “actively encourages organisations to put children in situations of potential risk and harm”. “This”, the letter said, “is the opposite of safeguarding.”

A spokesman for the NSPCC claimed it is “committed to protecting and supporting all children, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity”.