Children’s Safety in Tasmanian organisations

Investigators

Assoc Prof Tim Moore, Dr Morag McArthur

Funding source

Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry

Aims

This study aims to understand how children and young people experience safety in government-run or funded services in Tasmania to inform the work and recommendations of the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry.

Researchers have worked with individuals and groups of children and young people to explore:

• how safe they feel in key government institutions
• features of an organisation that increase or decrease their feelings of safety
• extent to which they feel confident raising safety concerns
• how they would raise these concerns (if inclined), to whom and what influences these decisions
• their awareness and understanding of high-risk, harmful or potentially grooming behaviours by adults in an institutional setting (including through online mechanisms)
• their awareness and understanding of harmful sexual behaviours that other children and young people may exhibit.

Details

This project is participatory and has engaged Tasmanian children and young people in schools, out-of-home care, youth detention and hospitals. It draws on a methodology developed for the Children’s Safety Studies. The project aims to provide children and young people an opportunity to reflect on their experiences, and identify ways that adults and organisations might prevent and respond to institutional child sexual abuse and other safety concerns. It also gives children and young people an opportunity to offer guidance to those wanting to enhance their safety in these settings.

For more details of the study, visit the webpage of the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry.

Publications

Moore, T., & McArthur, M. (2022). Take notice, believe us and act! Exploring the safety of children and young people in government run organisations. Hobart: Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.

Moore, T., McArthur, M. & Fuzz Illustration (2022). Take notice, believe us and act! [Animation]. Produced for Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry. Available from https://www.commissionofinquiry.tas.gov.au/childrens-report

Contact

Tim Moore for further information.