A 15-YEAR-OLD girl has been tagged to keep her out of a city's red light district and save her from sexual exploitation.
The youngster, who has a history of offending, has been seen getting in and out of cars belonging to men in Glasgow city centre.
She is one of several children to be tagged for her or his own safety using laws primarily designed to stamp down on young offenders.
Youth justice authorities in the city are now looking at proposals to tag another young offender, a vulnerable 16-year-old boy, who is also at risk from men looking for sex in the centre of the city.
Tags are used to enforce curfews on youngsters, keeping them at home when they are at most of risk of offending or being the victims of other offenders, young or old.
One senior source said the controversial devices could be used "creatively" for extremely vulnerable boys and girls.
She said: "The city centre is particularly horrible. There are highly organised groups of men who target the city centre.We have had young women coming out of cars who were involved in inappropriate sexual behaviour. Boys too."
Most of the children who have sexual encounters with older men in the city centre - or elsewhere - do not regard themselves as prostitutes. Many are understood to be seeking attention, lack self-esteem and see nothing wrong with having an older "boyfriend" who gives them food, clothes or presents.
Police officers and social workers, however, are more than aware of the dangers such men present.
Teenagers and children working as prostitutes are regularly found in Glasgow streets. Teams from Barnardos found 44 children under 17 being sexually exploited in the city in 2005, including a boy of nine and a girl of 10, the youngest victims of forced prostitution discovered in more than a decade.
The tagged 15-year-old girl is one of several youngsters who have been enrolled in Glasgow City Council's Intensive Support and Monitoring Service (ISMS), which offers an alternative to secure accommodation for some of the most troubled and troubling youngsters.
She is part of a minority of ISMS clients who are tagged, all under movement restrictions conditions imposed by a children's hearing.
Council officials passionately believe that protecting children from threats like sexual exploitation or association with other offenders can help cut offending as well as help the youngsters concerned.
A council spokesman said: "We have found that there is a strong link between vulnerability and offending.
"If issues around the vulnerability of the young person are addressed then this frequently has a positive impact on their offending behaviour.
"The ISMS programme has been successful in Glasgow and we will continue to look at ways to protect young people who are at risk of harm while also serving the wider public."
ISMS is currently available in just seven of Scotland's 32 local authorities as part of a major two-year-pilot project.
Children's hearings have had the power to impose tagging orders on youngsters since April of 2005, but only for those whose offending is so serious that they would otherwise be in a secure unit.
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