Children as young as four and their parents will be educated about sex abuse and prevention in what is believed to be a world-first under a major program being launched by the Perth Archdiocese of the Catholic Church.

 

Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said the Safeguarding Project would have at least two trained “safeguarding” officers in all 105 Perth parishes to run programs for families and be a point of contact for people with concerns.

 

Police Sen. Sgt Andrea Musulin, who is co-ordinating the project and training the volunteers, clergy and other church personnel, said it was crucial children were taught and empowered to protect themselves and to speak up.

 

“If a child has no age appropriate and developmentally appropriate knowledge of sex ... then they have no knowledge to draw from with which to resist and thereby prevent an offence,” she said.

 

“Eighty per cent of crimes occur because of the opportunity ... things we can teach children would reduce that opportunity.”

 

Sen. Sgt Musulin said four was the age children could grasp concepts and strategies such as “safe” and “unsafe” secrets but there were still simple protective behaviours that could be taught to younger children, such as having no secrets.

 

Parent support for the program would be vital to ensure they also learnt how and why child sex abuse was perpetrated and offenders’ methods of “grooming and entrapment”, she said.

 

Archbishop Costelloe said he suspected many other programs did not focus on child education because parents could feel uncomfortable raising such issues with their children, particularly when they were very young.

 

But he was aware of how vital it was and was encouraged by applause when he and Sen. Sgt Musulin discussed the project at Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral yesterday.

 

Archbishop Costelloe said he was committed to any recommendations a royal commission into child sex abuse would make but did not want to wait for them. Instead, he would launch a program now to protect children and prevent further abuse.

 

“Child sexual abuse is a terrible problem and it simply has to be dealt with,” he said.

 

One in four Australian children will suffer some form of sex abuse before they turn 18 and nationally about 40,000 children are sexually abused each year, Sen. Sgt Musulin said.

 

She said there was a positive response to the project from a pilot scheme launched in four parishes six weeks ago.

 

Current and former police officers, school principals, teachers, disability specialists and child protection workers had volunteered to be safeguarding officers.