We have decades of evidence showing the widespread abuse and neglect suffered by children in the out-of-home care system. The agencies responsible for allowing the abuse have little to fear.
Policies and services designed to protect Aboriginal children’s cultural connections are not being properly implemented.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Alwin Chong, University of South Australia and Fiona Arney, University of South Australia
New reports show a widespread lack of care for the cultural needs of many of the 19,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection and out-of-home care.
Indonesia recently introduced forced chemical castration for perpetrators of sexual abuse against children. Last week Australian Robert Ellis (centre) was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing girls in Bali.
EPA/Made Nagi
The once-taboo topics of domestic violence and institutional abuse are now front-page news, but repeated reports of incest have not registered in public awareness as evidence of a serious problem.
Long-term stable foster placements can achieve similar outcomes to permanent care placements.
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Victorian child protection law reforms due to come into effect next month will give parents two years from when their children are removed to lift their game, before permanently losing custody.
Plans to take over failing children’s services won’t mitigate the impact of austerity.
Some who survived abuse as children have waited a lifetime to be heard, and the royal commission has given people like John Ellis that opportunity.
AAP/Jeremy Piper
The silencing of children has as long a history as child abuse itself. It is why we need royal commissions, books, and now a play: to allow children to tell us the truth of what was done to them.
Is the government really helping people choose the right direction?
Steven Feather
Hundreds of people have been referred to a programme that is supposed to protect them from being drawn into terrorism. But its methods are deeply questionable.
Concerns over objectification tend to focus on adult women, but children can be objectified as well.
Halfpoint/Shutterstock
Our new research shows the culture of sexualisation not only affects how young girls see themselves, but also how they are treated and viewed by adults.
Australians are living and working longer, marrying later and earning more that past generations.
Hamed Masoumi/Flickr
Divorce rates are on the decline in Australia, people are marrying and having children later in life, and more of us live alone. Our experts respond to the new report on Australia’s welfare.
The “right to parent” according to one’s own values and proclivities isn’t actually unfettered.
photon_de/Flickr
A Family Court “order” for parents of a child to not smoke around him and to limit their alcohol consumption while caring for him have invited the same old accusations about the “nanny state”.
All smiles - but who’s watching what they’re watching?
LG
Should ‘think of the children’ ever come to the point of spying on teenagers?
Broadcaster Derryn Hinch is a prominent campaigner for US-style sex offender registries, but it is important to be aware of their limitations.
AAP/Dan Peled
Western Australia was the first state in the nation to allow public access to a sex offender register online. The public needs to understand how it works to avoid a false sense of security.
Too hot to handle, for children.
hot stuff by Smolina Marianna/shutterstock.com
Responses to high-risk pregnancy and high-risk infants across Australia are haphazard, and legislation alone will not correct the problem.
Indigenous prisoners perform a welcome ceremony at the 2014 opening of Darwin’s $500 million prison, which is likely to be full by 2018.
AAP/Neda Vanovac
The Northern Territory stands out for having one of the highest imprisonment rates in the world - much higher even than in the US - and it’s hard to argue that this does the community much good.
Adoption should only be considered when other, less intrusive options, have been eliminated.
Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock
In response to the tragic death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine in South Australia, adoption has been raised as a solution to a “child protection crisis”.