Adults are Unaware of Child Abuse Signs or How to Report It

A study has found one third of Australians surveyed would not immediately tell someone if they thought a child was being abused or neglected.

The national online representative survey, carried out by Pure Profile and funded by Act for Kids, asked 1004 Australians aged 18 and over a range of questions about whether they knew the signs of child abuse and what they would do.

More than a third (37.4 per cent) said if they thought a child was being abused they would want to know more about what signs to look for before telling anyone while 16 per cent said they would wait to see if it got worse or continued before doing anything.

Of those surveyed, one quarter said they did not know the signs of child abuse and neglect while 41 per cent admitted they would need to Google how to report suspected abuse.

Act for Kids chief executive Dr Neil Carrington said the survey highlighted a lack of knowledge that Australians have about child abuse and neglect.

“What worries me is that over 90 per cent of people who harm children are in a position of love and trust and the fact that one in four Aussies aren’t confident about what to do in terms of identifying signs of child abuse is really quite worrying,” he said.

– Amy Mitchell-Whittington

Photo Source – SMH