A special episode of Emmerdale aired this evening that explored some of the dangers young people are facing in today’s society.

The characters involved were April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan), Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley), Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) and Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy). While each storyline strand weren’t connected, they did share similarities.

The instalment began with Dawn confronting Joe Tate (Ned Porteous). Yesterday, she briefly mentioned her traumatic past and noticed how Joe seemed keen to change the subject. She wondered if he was ashamed of her.

The couple eventually sat down and Joe listened to Dawn as she told him about the trauma she endured as a child.

A young Dawn Taylor lived a chaotic life. During her teens, she began a relationship with someone called Alex, who manipulated her into trying heroin.

When they discussed Dawn having sex with men, Joe called it prostitution, and she was very quick to remind him that she was only 15 when it happened – it was rape.

While she lived on the streets, Dawn met another vulnerable female called Beth. She slept with Alex and then got pregnant, later giving birth to Clemmie.

The whole reason why Dawn started this conversation was because she was trying to work out how to protect Clemmie. Last week, we learnt that she sent an indecent image to another boy in her class, who then shared it to a group chat.

On Monday, Dawn discovered the group chat had set up a poll that sexualised Clemmie, who is only 10 years old. The dark cloud that once followed Dawn around felt as though it was now above Clemmie – she was desperate to help the young girl, to prevent her falling into the same cycle she was in.

As this conversation took place, we kept seeing April, who is being groomed by a man called Ray Walters (Joe Absolom). Just like Dawn, April has been lured into Ray’s world with caring comments and money, but also horrible threats, and now she feels as though she can’t ever leave.

As part of her efforts to pay off the mounting debt, April accepted Ray’s big job offer, which involved meeting a man called Tim in a hotel room.

April handed him the cocaine and then sat down as he poured some vodka. Tim explained to April that his friends were set to attend but they cancelled.

Completely alone, April didn’t know what to expect. Tim asked April to join him with taking the cocaine, but she really didn’t want to.

Tim approached April and told her that he likes her innocence. He offered her a neck massage, and it was in this moment that April realised what could happen next.

Quickly distracting Tim allowed April to run out of the hotel. When she got back to the village, Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) found her, and noted that her face was red raw from all of her crying.

In her bedroom at the B&B, April told Celia that she doesn’t ever want to do what Tim had been requesting.

Celia, who had calmed April down moments prior, told her that she did not have any choice. She explained that meeting clients like Tim is an excellent way to pay off a large amount of her debt quickly.

Celia’s words were clever – she was comforting April in one sentence, telling her that it’s okay the job didn’t go as planned but in the next breath, she was convincing her that completing these assignments with the likes of Tim are the only way to fix her problem and keep her loved ones safe.

As Celia left, April grabbed her teddy and held it close. The teenager is trapped – she currently feels as though she cannot tell anyone what she’s been going through because she fears that if she does, her family will be in danger, or she could face criminal charges for dealing.

At Home Farm, Joe and Dawn were getting ready to take the children for pizza. It was a difficult few hours for Dawn, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Joe viewed her differently now he knows more about the ordeals she went through.

Joe said that he does, but he sees her as someone even stronger than before.

Dawn spared a thought for the children up and down the country going through similar things to the younger version of her – unaware someone she sees every single week is experiencing it right now.