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When Is a Child Made a Party to Family Court Proceedings?

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Jess King

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July 16, 2026 ∙ 4 min read

Recognising Abuse In Teenage Relationships

When you’re young, relationships are meant to feel exciting, safe, and supportive. But sadly, more and more teenagers are experiencing unhealthy and even abusive behaviour from partners or people close to them. Abuse isn’t always about bruises—it can be emotional, controlling, or online. The important thing to remember is this: if a relationship is making you feel scared, trapped, or unsafe, it’s not your fault and there is help available.

What counts as domestic abuse?

Domestic abuse is when someone you’re in a relationship with (or a family member) hurts you, controls you, or makes you feel unsafe. It can include:

Controlling behaviour: checking your phone, deleting your messages, stopping you seeing friends or family.
Threats: saying they’ll hurt you (or themselves) if you don’t do what they want.
Physical abuse: pushing, hitting, strangling, or any kind of unwanted physical harm.
Emotional abuse: putting you down, making you feel worthless, or scaring you into staying with them.
Online abuse: constant messaging, demanding passwords, sending or sharing intimate photos without consent.
Sexual abuse: making you engage in sexual activity even if you don’t want to and manipulating you into doing things you may not feel comfortable doing, trying to normalize behaviours such as strangulation or hitting.

If any of this sound familiar, you’re not alone—and you don’t have to put up with it.

What the law says

The law in England and Wales takes domestic abuse seriously, even for young people. If you’re under 18, you still have rights and protection. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 made clear that abuse can happen at any age, in dating relationships as well as at home.

Orders that can protect you:

1. Non-Molestation Order (NMO)

This order stops an abusive person from contacting you, threatening you, or coming near your home/school.
If they break it, they can be arrested, imprisoned or fined depending on the nature of the breach.
This order is normally in place for 12 months but can be extended if necessary.

2. Occupation Order

If you live with your abuser (for example, in a family situation), this order can remove them from the home or stop them coming back.
This order is normally in place for 6 months but can be extended if necessary.

3. Police Protection

If you’re in immediate danger, the police can give instant protection by arresting the abuser or issuing a Domestic Violence Protection Notice (DVPN), followed by a Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO).
The police can also impose bail conditions however, bail conditions will only be imposed for the length of time whist they are investigating the case and can be dropped at any time if the police decide that they are not pursuing the case.

Just because the police have decided they are not pursuing the case, does not mean that you are not eligible for protection.

4. Domestic Abuse Protection Order

This is an Order which can enforce the respondent to wear a tag which can electronically monitor where they are, and furthermore, can impose the respondent to engage with a domestic abuse perpetrator programme.

Even if you’re under 16, courts can still put protective measures in place to keep you safe.

Getting help

Tell someone you trust: a parent, carer, teacher, or close friend.
Call the police (999) if you’re in immediate danger or (111) if you wish to log a incident. Remember – just because you did not contact the police immediately, doesn’t mean that you cannot raise it with the police for them to log this on their records.
Contact domestic abuse protection service, near you.

Remember—asking for help doesn’t make you weak. It makes you strong.

Final message

Everyone deserves a relationship built on respect, trust, and kindness. If you ever feel unsafe, you don’t have to face it alone. There are laws, services, and people ready to protect you.

Your safety comes first—always.