Child exploitation describes a situation where an exploiter (who could be an adult or a peer) takes advantage of the child for their own personal or financial gain or gratification. It is based on a power imbalance in the relationship between the child and their exploiter and enables the exploiter to control the movement and behaviour of the child.

Very often there is an interface between harm, exploitation and going missing, and for this reason CSSW has a designated officer, the Missing and Child Exploitation Co-ordinator, who is responsible for oversight of missing episodes and exploitation of children in Camden.