A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Dr Gemma McKibbin, Julie Green and Professor Cathy Humphreys It’s probably fair to say that most Australians like to think when children and young people are ‘rescued’ from abusive family situations they are placed in cosy homes with devoted carers. While this may be true for some children and young people, for those placed in [...]
Talking for Change is a government-funded national program that aims to prevent child sexual abuse. It provides an anonymous national helpline and treatment options for anyone concerned about their attraction to children. Ainslie Heasman, Ontario Tech University Every year, thousands of children are victims of sexual abuse in Canada. The impacts of abuse can be [...]
‘I started walking the long way’: many young women first experience street harassment in their school uniforms Bianca Fileborn, The University of Melbourne and Jess Hardley, The University of Melbourne Can you remember the first time you were harassed in a public space? What comes to mind? Can you remember how old you were, or [...]
By Lisa Wheildon and Asher Flynn “If anything comes out of this, I want it to be a lesson to everybody that family violence happens to everybody no matter how nice your house is, no matter how intelligent you are. It happens to anyone and everyone.” These simple, grief-stricken words and the accompanying images of [...]
Suku Sukunesan, Swinburne University of Technology There’s no shortage of people online looking to exploit and manipulate the vulnerable among us. One such group is anorexia coaches, or “anacoaches”. They are typically middle-aged, male sexual predators who go online to find impressionable young people to exploit under the guise of providing weight-loss “coaching”. I have [...]
Mary Iliadis, Deakin University; Bianca Fileborn, The University of Melbourne, and Rachel Loney-Howes, University of Wollongong The continuing media coverage of rape and sexual assault allegations faced by current and former political figures has put many sexual abuse survivors at risk of being traumatised all over again. Widespread media attention features near-constant social media updates [...]
Emma Tseris, University of Sydney and Nicole Moulding, University of South Australia This article discusses sexual assault, gendered violence and mental distress. Over the past week, some media commentary on the rape allegations against federal Attorney-General Christian Porter have used the alleged victim’s history of mental health difficulties to undermine and raise questions about the [...]
Georgina Heydon, RMIT University; Nicola Henry, RMIT University; Rachel Loney-Howes, University of Wollongong, and Tully O'Neill, The University of Melbourne The alleged rape of former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins has raised many questions about how sexual assault gets reported. Members of the Morrison government have repeatedly stressed the appropriate response to allegations of sexual [...]
TV producers are thankfully removing or omitting content such as depictions of smoking and suicide from their programs. The same cannot be said for sexual violence. While pornography has rightly been the main focus of concerning, graphic depictions of sexual assault available to young people, there are also a troubling number of sexual assault scenes [...]
Recent events, including the conviction and sentencing of George Pell for sexually abusing two children in the 1990s and the documentary airing allegations about Michael Jackson’s abuse of two young boys, have made prominent the topic of child sexual abuse. Many parents may be concerned about the safety of their child, and whether they are [...]
