A WIRRAL youth performance project which aims to warn other young people of the dangers of child sexual exploitation will be premiered to the Merseyside's police commissioner today.

Wirral Council's creative youth development team has been training young people to be "peer educators" by highlighting the dangers of sexual exploitation to their students across the borough.

As part of this innovative programme, the group have developed a performance piece which aims to bring the key issues to life and show other young people how to protect themselves online and on the streets.

Commissioner Jane Kennedy will be among those viewing the play at a special performance at the Pilgrim Street Arts Centre in Birkenhead today.

Ms Kennedy said: "Tackling child sexual exploitation is one of my policing priorities and in March this year, I promoted a new multi-agency campaign 'Listen to my Story' to raise awareness and understanding of this important topic among young people, parents, carers, teachers and the general public.

"One of the key messages that came out during the preparing and planning of this campaign is that we need to talk to young people in a language they understand about the everyday dangers they face.

"In fact, the young people within my youth advisory group were insistent that we needed to talk louder, more openly and more frankly about this difficult topic.

"They told me that we should not be sanitising child sexual exploitation, but instead should be telling young people the truth in a way they can understand.

"That is why I am delighted to be attending this performance, to see how young people themselves think these messages should best be conveyed to make their peers aware of their own vulnerability and encourage them to take the right steps to protect themselves."

The group are now hoping to take the performance on tour across Wirral and they have also developed a complementary workshop to accompany the play which encourages young people to look at the issues raised in more detail.