More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
She narrowly escaped death in a serious car crash and was groomed as a child by a man she should have been able to trust. Now Sharon Doughty is using her experiences to make a positive difference to young people's lives. Reporter Sophie Bird caught up with her to find out how.
Tackling grooming and steering children away from the clutches of county lines drug gangs can be achieved by making children feel special, says the creator of a cartoon which aims to do exactly that.
Sharon Doughty grew up in Dartford and is now using experiences throughout her life to build a resource for primary schools designed to keep children safe.
Dot Com is a computer programme which uses a cartoon to teach children at risk of sexual and criminal grooming how to recognise the signs and tell adults about what is happening.
So far 1,000 primary schools have signed up to the initiative which is supported by Essex Police.
When she was working as a BBC presenter Mrs Doughty was in a car crash which almost killed her. Being so close to dying made her think about what she had achieved in life.
Mrs Doughty said: "I hadn't done anything that would make a difference. So I promised myself, if I survived, I would do something different.
"So, when I decided to change my life, I worked with the police to create what would become a friend to children and help them learn to talk about things which frightened or worried them. That's how Dot was born."
As well as the input from Essex Police and children working on the project, the Dot Com programme was shaped by the extreme trauma Mrs Doughty suffered as a child.
She said: "My father was very violent and my mum would leave me with my grandparents if she thought violence was going to happen."
At the same time she was subjected to sexual abuse from a person she should have been able to trust.
It was only after her mother moved away from her father that Mrs Doughty broke away from the damaging treatment.
She moved to Dartford with her grandmother, who convinced her to join the Len Goodman School of Dance and become a TV presenter.
Mrs Doughty said: "Suddenly, in Len Goodman, I had this really fantastic male role model. He had decided he wanted to make the dance school a safe place for children where they enjoy dancing. It made me feel safe and special because obviously if you learn a dance, you get all the praise.
"And my grandmother, while we were watching Andrew Gardner reading the news, said she was so proud of me for learning to read. She said, I could do that job now. It went into my head and I thought that's what I'm going to do. When someone else tells you that you can do something it's really very helpful and positive.
"So that is where I really understood how important role models were in children's lives but also how important it was for someone to tell you that you were special."
As a result of her experience Dot Com teaches children to find the reasons they are special - female protagonist Dot explains why she thinks she is special, then asks children to do the same.
The 55-year-old added: "Groomers, whether it be sexual or criminal, look for children that lack confidence and don't value themselves. I know from being groomed, the first thing a groomer will tell a child is how they can see they're really special and can see things in them nobody else can see.
"Then they ask the child to do something for them because they're so special and need their help.
"It's really fundamental in a school setting that all children realise why they are special. It sets them up with confidence and confident children are not what groomers are looking for."
The array of characters children can interact with on Dot Com are intended to be both friends and role models.
Mrs Doughty knows from experience if children are suffering from trauma, it can be very difficult to build relationships with other people. So the characters help them learn how to make new friends.
They are designed to be relateable for the children, so when a character talks about their emotions in specific situations, the children can understand those emotions in themselves.
Mrs Doughty adds: "It's really interesting when people look at the way Dot looks. The characters teach children people are more than just the way they look. Children relate to Dot because she's really kind and she cares about them.
"The children connect to the different characters too, like Slam who plays basketball. Even though he is a young black boy, quite a lot of the white young boys relate to him because they love basketball too.
"So it's about teaching children there's a wide range of the ways people look and helping them to realise they can connect with characters because they share interests, values and behaviours."
Another character was based on wheelchair-bound Charl Du Plessis, who Mrs Doughty was introduced to when she met Nelson Mandela - the late South African leader was the first person to endorse Dot Com in 2002.
To make conversation, somebody asked Charl why he was in the wheelchair. He replied: "Oh, because I was born with Spina Bifida. But actually I'm really good at talking and I like to focus on what I'm good at and accept what I can't do. Follow me!"
Remembering this fondly, Mrs Doughty said: "I just thought he was absolutely amazing. So we used him, he's a real little boy we've made into a cartoon.
"Lots of children really like him because they say he's helped them to accept the things they're not good at while being really positive and focused on the things they're good at."
Feeling confident and connecting to these characters is the first building block in teaching children how to communicate their feelings to adults and seek help.
Mrs Doughty said: "I think that communication skills are very much the missing part of what is taught at school, because we make assumptions that children will know how to ask for help.
"I think it is really important that children get to learn an emotional vocabulary. They get to practice talking about their feelings with characters and they get to think about who they can turn to if there's a problem."
KMTV meets Dot Com's creator
