Child Abuse Royal Commission: Prevention Programs for Preschoolers Can Be Effective, Report Finds
By Sarah Farnsworth
Child sexual abuse prevention programs for preschoolers can be effective, according to a new report. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has found children as young as five can be taught how to recognise abuse. However, while the report found child abuse prevention programs for preschoolers do appear to work, there is not enough evidence to say whether they result in more children disclosing abuse. But child safety advocates are convinced they do. Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said although it is a sensitive topic for teachers and parents, it is possible to get a young child to recognise if they are being sexually abused and to speak out. "It is absolutely possible to talk to children aged three years old and up, and children with intellectual disabilities, and non-English speaking children, to teach them about their personal safety so that they are very clear that when they feel unsafe or unsure they can say 'no' and they can run and tell someone," Ms Johnston said. Bravehearts program Ditto's Keep Safe Adventure is the main prevention program available in Australia. It uses a teddy bear mascot called Ditto to teach children aged three to eight what to look out for. Ms Johnston is adamant the program is seeing results. "Absolutely we've seen it, we have experienced it, and its been underscored by police, right down to age three and disclosures of children and the Ditto rules, the name of our mascot, child protection mascot, is showing up every day in court rooms and police stations right around the country," she said. But while the program is completely government-funded in Tasmania, it only has partial funding in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. Federal funds to run the program in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and far North Queensland will end in June. Verity Kowal from Childwise said another main issue is that the school programs are not mandatory. "Certainly if it was implemented - that this was a requirement - then there would be obviously more uptake and better protection for children," Ms Kowal said. "So I think while it's great that some schools and childcare centres do take the individual initiative, we do enforce other protective health and safety measures. "Minimum mandatory measures for these organisations and child protection from abuse should certainly be one of them." However, there is some scepticism as to whether the programs can be preventative, given the nature of the crime. Early Childhood Australia's Pam Vinke said she does not think such programs "have been shown to be able to protect children, because adults who want to abuse children are very clever at being able to get their confidence, or to threaten them, or to bribe them ,or to say they're a friend of daddy's and mummy's". Meanwhile, the royal commission wants more research to be conducted before it makes any firm conclusions as to whether the programs work. Ms Johnston said that will be a hard task. "There is not enough research because there is not enough programs and it's hard enough trying to find the funding to do these programs and deliver these programs as it is to evaluate them."
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