Children & young people
A national reckoning: Preventing child sexual abuse requires a cross-system and evidence-informed approach
27 August 2025
The recent charges and investigations of child sexual abuse in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, including confirmed cases in Sydney and ongoing investigations in Melbourne, have sparked deep public concern and anger. These events have raised serious questions about trust, safety, and responsibility.
Every child has the right to safety, wellbeing and a voice. We owe it to them to uphold these rights across every part of our systems.
Child sexual abuse is not rare, and it is not isolated
The abuse alleged in these cases is horrific, unfortunately, it is not unusual. One in seven Australians have experienced sexual abuse in childhood.1 Gendered differences remain, with girls three times more likely than boys to be victim-survivors of child sexual abuse.2
This abuse occurs across a range of settings; in institutions, families, peer relationships, and increasingly, online. It also rarely occurs alone. Children who experience one form of maltreatment are far more likely to experience others, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, and exposure to domestic and family violence.
For many, child sexual abuse is the first in a series of violations that can shape the trajectory of their lives. That trajectory can be changed, but only if we act.
Children and young people must be at the centre of the response
Children and young people are not simply witnesses to violence. They are system users and victim-survivors in their own right. At the ANROWS National Conference 2025, we heard from 25 children and young people who shared how systems can do better to support their safety and wellbeing.
Young people are offering practical solutions. Their insights are critical for designing services, policies and community responses that reflect real needs.
As Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine said at the conference:
“Children and young people have not been consistently drawn into the blueprint of our nation’s response to domestic, family and sexual violence.”
We must redraw that blueprint; one that centres children’s safety, wellbeing, and agency. This means embedding trauma-informed training across sectors, designing inclusive services with children’s participation, and ensuring every system response is shaped by what safety looks and feels like to young people themselves.
Excluding men is not the answer
As the sector considers responses to these events, some have suggested excluding men from early childhood education. This is not the answer.
Sexual violence is gendered. Most perpetrators are men, and girls are disproportionately affected. But it is harmful attitudes and behaviours, not gender alone, that drive abuse.
Preventing violence means investing in quality training, trauma-informed systems, workplace cultures that support safety and disclosure, and strong safeguarding practices.
“Men already working in early childhood education play a vital role in this. We need more of them, not fewer. A safer system is one where men are trained, accountable, and part of the shared responsibility to protect children.”
– Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine
Moving beyond outrage
Governments have responded swiftly, with bipartisan support for reforms, and a bill introduced to strip funding from non-compliant ECEC providers and further actions proposed from the national Ministers meeting. Early Childhood Australia (ECA) has formed a Rapid Response Taskforce of experts in child sexual abuse and safeguarding to improve children’s safety and provide timely support to educators and care workers.
These are important steps.
However, this is not a challenge that policy alone can solve. It requires a coordinated, sustained national response that integrates child safety and wellbeing across every part of our systems, from health, education and justice to digital spaces.
We need responses that:
- Are grounded in evidence
- Centre the voices of children and young people
- Build healing and prevention into the core of service delivery
- Recognise the intersection of power, gender, culture and system access
We have the research. We already have the recommendations, from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. Now, we must act.
Listen to children when they are children
The Australian National Research Agenda to End Violence against Women and Children 2023–2028 calls on us to listen to children when they are children.3 That means engaging them in research, designing services that reflect their needs, and building systems that respond with care, not delay.
“This moment, confronting as it is, must move beyond investigation and outrage. We need a response that is driven by evidence, centred on children, and committed to long-term prevention.” – Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine
At ANROWS, we will continue to support the take-up of evidence and amplify what children and young people have told us: that safety means being believed, supported, and seen as individuals in their own right.
This is a national reckoning. It demands a principled, cross-system response; one that strengthens prevention, response and healing across education, justice, health, child protection, digital safety and care. Children and young people’s voices must be at the centre of this change.
References
1. ABS Personal Safety Survey 2021–2022, Data Table 4.1
2. ABS Personal Safety Survey 2021–2022, Childhood Sexual Abuse
3. ANROWS (2023). Australian National Research Agenda to End Violence against Women and Children 2023–2028.
Contact us
Media contact:
Emmagness Ruzvidzo | [email protected]
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About ANROWS
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS) is a not-for-profit independent national research organisation.
ANROWS is an initiative of Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022. ANROWS was established by the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments of Australia to produce, disseminate and assist in applying evidence for policy and practice addressing violence against women and their children. ANROWS is the only such research organisation in Australia.