Children and young people must be involved in changes to make organisations safer for them, researchers who have prepared a report for the Tasmanian child sexual abuse commission of inquiry say.
Child safety experts associate professor Tim Moore and emeritus professor Morag McArthur co-authored a report, 'Take notice, believe us and act', which explores the views and experiences of 59 young people who have spent time in state institutions — schools, hospitals, out-of-home care or youth detention.
"One of the limitations in conversations around children's voices is all about listening to children. Children and young people said, 'That's not enough, it has to be about change and we have to work together for that change,'" Dr Moore said.
"There can be no change if you're not speaking directly to victims and sufferers."
He said the young people involved in the research said their protection was something that impacted them every day, "and when adults muck it up, it impacts on us and has an enduring impact on our lives so please, please, please involve us".
The commission has heard harrowing evidence from people who alleged abuse at public schools and hospitals, while in foster care, or at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. The state government has already announced some changes to the way those organisations safeguard children.
The commission's final report and recommendations are due to be handed down in May and the government has said it will implement those recommendations.
Tara, an 18-year-old who has experience in Tasmania's out-of-home care and state education systems, who spoke at the report launch on Friday, had a message for ministers and bureaucrats responsible for implementing changes.
"I'm sure that you are doing everything that you think is the best possible for young people, but ... if you actually asked them, they have some great things that they could tell you that you might not have even thought of," she said.
"Just ask the kids, ask them what they think would be right.
"I get that kids can't sometimes answer that question in the most adult or professional way, but they can answer it in their own way. It is really important to listen to them.
"That's the best source of information you're going to get around whether these policies and these things are working."
Voices of children have been 'silenced'
Bella (not hear real name) has also spent time in out-of-home care and spoke at the launch.
She said it was important to hear children's voices, and to give children time to raise concerns.
"I think there's so much insight that can be missed when the young people aren't further inquired [of]," she said.
Commission president Marcia Neave said children and young people often had profound insights.
"Children are very good at saying things that can cut through the nonsense, that bring you up short, that surprise you and that exhibit real insights," Ms Neave said.
"It's a matter of shame for our society that in the past, the voices of children who fear sexual abuse, who have been exposed to the possibility of abuse, or who've been abused, have been silenced or have not been heard."
Dr Moore said most of the young people involved in the research reported feeling safe for "most of the time in most institutions with which they interacted".
"Children and young people in youth detention and out-of-home care, in particular, did identify times when they'd been hurt or harmed by adults," he said.
Dr Moore said there were also stories, particularly from young people who had been in youth detention, of being discouraged from raising concerns, or where young people reported backlash if they had raised, or tried to raise, concerns.
Children's Commissioner 'greatly concerned'
One of the children interviewed said they were not allowed to call the Tasmanian Commissioner for Children and Young People, who advocates for children in detention.
Another said the detention centre had posters telling detainees they could contact the commissioner, but when detainees asked to do so, they were discouraged.
"That's another thing that Ashley [Detention Centre] hates as well. They put all these posters up and that, but deep down they hate it. If you say, 'I want to call the Commissioner,' they're just like, 'Oh, you're going to do that, are you?'
That detainee also told the report's authors it was particularly hard to contact the commissioner to complain about centre staff members.
"They say, 'Well, if you call the commissioner, then I'm not doing s**t for you.' They're like, 'I'll give you what I have to, I'll give you your food and that, but only because I have to by law, but I'm not going to sit there and like you. If you do that, you're just a scumbag. The amount of times I've had that said to me, then like, 'No, I'm only joking'."
Children and Young People Commissioner Leanne McLean said she found it hard to read those parts of the report.
"It causes me great concern that a child would be prevented, either knowingly or subversively, from reaching out to somebody who is here to help them," Ms McLean said.
"That just feels grossly unfair, particularly when they are detained, deprived of their liberty, separated from their family and their networks.
"So that is something that I will be acting on very quickly."
'Nobody's done anything about it'
A young person who had spent time in out-of-home care told the authors about being "locked outside" while their foster parents ate dinner "if we had talked back to them about something".
Another said: "I've still got a lot of hate and rage for my old carer for the fact that she got away for [the physical and emotional abuse] and she's still getting away with abuse towards young kids."
They said they had told "multiple people" about the abuse, "but nobody's done anything about it. And the anger I feel about it is intense".,
Another said they had never had a proper home: "Imagine if you're sitting in a wobbly chair, it feels like that, but emotionally like anything could just drop at any moment."
The researchers found that in the experience of the young people they spoke to, there was:
- Little discussion in sex and relationship education about risks of adult-youth relationships
- A pervasive view among those who had not experienced child sexual assault that only strangers can cause children harm
- Little understanding of what to do if they were worried or had been harmed
- Some appreciation of consent, but not about the inappropriateness of professional-client relationships
- Some awareness of online risks, including catfishing, sexting, grooming and harassment, but little discussion at school or in organisations about how to detect, prevent or manage it
- Little confidence that adults understood the issues or had good strategies for preventing or responding
Many of the young people said they had reservations about adults' and organisations' capacity to understand and respond to their safety.
They said they needed a trusted adult, champion or ally in their life, to be made aware of organisations' complaints processes, to trust that they would be believed, to have confidence there would be action taken in response to complaints, and to know that they would be protected from consequences or repercussions after making a complaint.
Ms McLean said it was concerning that very little had changed in children's perceptions of their safety in institutions since the national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard from children during its work several years ago.
"In Tasmania, that speaks to the fact that we have lost time in implementing a comprehensive child-safe organisational framework; we have lost time in providing appropriate individual advocacy for children in detention and children in care, and now we need to put the accelerator down so that we can catch up."
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the government would "closely examine" Friday's report, and thanked the Commission of Inquiry for its ongoing work.
