What can designers do to help combat sexual exploitation of children? That is the question posed by WDCD in collaboration with the Dutch Public Prosecutions Service (OM) and the Ministry of Justice & Security in an invitation-only design challenge.
In No Minor Thing: The What Design Can Do Challenge to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children, selected design teams and students of the Royal College of Arts in London had the opportunity to come up with new ways of tackling this issue. Participants are introduced to experts and ‘problem-owners’ who can help put ideas into practice. 
A hidden problem
Sexual exploitation happens everywhere, but it happens under the radar, out of sight of everyone. On estimation only 1 in 9 cases of sexual exploitation of girls are registered in the justice system. There are even fewer reports of male exploitation, where the actual figure is even harder to estimate. That makes this a very urgent, yet difficult problem. However, it also offers pointers for designers, who are talented in making things visible to come up with new ideas to prevent and combat the problem.
17 projects
On Wednesday 16th May, eleven design teams came together for the first No Minor Thing briefing session, hosted by WDCD, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the Ministry of Justice and Security and design research partner STBY. Five design briefs were presented to the design teams with elaborate background information. In several ideation workshops and feedback sessions the teams had a chance to extend their understanding of the problem and check their ideas with experts. On 15 November 2018 17 projects including four student projects from RCA in London are presented to the challenge partners.