This practice guide is designed to strengthen the capacity of staff in out-of-home care services to actively support and promote the online safety of children and young people in their care. It aims to empower staff supporting children, young people, and their carers to:
- Gain a clear understanding of the online environments that children and young people in out-of-home care engage in.
- Recognise and address the unique vulnerabilities faced by children and young people with developmental trauma when navigating the digital world.
- Build confidence and readiness to support online safety with children and young people.
- Understand their responsibilities in adhering to established guidelines and policies for online interactions with children and young people.
This practice guide was developed to address growing concerns about online safety for children and young people, particularly those in out-of-home care. The project was funded by eSafety, reflecting a shared commitment to ensuring all children and young people are safe and supported in digital environments.
The AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) has urged school communities to be alert to signs of children being forced to marry, with forced marriages the most reported human trafficking offence in Australia.
The AFP responded to 91 reports of forced marriages in 2023-24, which represented almost 25 per cent of the 382 reports received that year across all human trafficking offence types.
Read the full media release here
The National Centre has developed a new mapping tool to assist specialist and community support services in implementing the Minimum Practice Standards (MPS). This tool maps the MPS to six other common standards and guidelines and has been designed to help organisations assess their current practices and identify strengths and areas for improvement. By supporting organisations to implement these standards effectively, individuals impacted by child sexual abuse can have better access to safe, protective and effective services.
In this podcast, Alisa Hall describes her work as Director, Practice Development and Engagement at the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse. The National Centre was established in recognition of data showing that one in three girls and one in five boys experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.
Listen to the podcast here.
The team behind National Centre-funded research project, “Survivor perspectives on institutional use of child sexual abuse material”, has published their literature review in the International Journal of Crime, Justice and Social Democracy.
Led by Campbell Wilson from Monash University’s AiLECS Lab, the review investigates how child sexual abuse material is currently used in institutional contexts by police, courts, academic and policy researchers and private sector entities.
The outcomes of this review inform further exploration of what victims and survivors of crimes involving child sexual abuse material think and know about the use of this material by institutions. The project will also be developing recommendations on how victim and survivor perspectives can be embedded by the institutions that use these materials.
Read the review and learn more about the project
“As survivors, we know what could have helped us, we know what hurt us.“
Efforts to protect children from abuse which do not centre the wisdom of people who were abused as children themselves are fundamentally limited in their effectiveness.
‘Emma’s Project’ was always the temporary name for a much more collective effort for the protection of children, guided by the shared wisdom of survivors of sexual abuse during childhood.
After having read every single word from every single person who responded to the survey – three times over – ACF have a roadmap forward.
It is with pride that ACF share their survivor-renamed Our Collective Experience Project, and our first report from it: Hear us now, act now.
We encourage you to download, read and share this report with people you know who may be interested in the protection of children. The content of the report which includes extensive quotes from survivors is very powerful.