Video 1 – Take Notice, Believe Us and Act
[Narrator] In the past, some children and young people have been hurt by adults who were supposed to be looking after them. This included children and young people who were in hospital, at schools, in youth detention. All were living in care away from the birth families.
Sometimes adults and organisations were good at responding and kept children and young people safe, but sometimes they failed. They didn’t believe children and young people. They didn’t put children first.
To make things better the Tasmanian Government formed a Commission of Inquiry because they were worried that bad things might keep happening to children. The Commission asked us to speak with children and young people and hear their ideas about how adults and organisations can protect them and help them feel safe.
The Commission will use these ideas to shape their recommendations.
In 2022 we spoke with 59 children and young people across Tasmania one-on-one or in small groups. They told us that most of the time they felt safe in organisations. These are some of the things they told us.
Children and young people told us that safety is often something you feel when you are safe. You are calm and relaxed. When you’re unsafe you feel tense, have butterflies and are creeped out. Sometimes children feel safe when they are not safe and sometimes they are freaked out when things are pretty okay.
Adults can think differently from children and young people about what it means to be safe. Adults often rely on their own experiences to decide if someone or something or some place isn’t safe. Because of this adults are sometimes not good at listening when children raise a concern, especially if they haven’t seen it themselves.
If children feel like they’re not being taken seriously or don’t feel understood they will probably stop sharing their worries.
Children and young people told us they need to have an adult they trust. They need to know that this adult will listen to them, believe them, take their worry seriously and protect them from any consequences.
Children and young people told us that they need to be surrounded by people who help them feel safe, to feel safe in an organisation. They need people who respect and value them.
Adults can make organisations feel safe by keeping spaces child-friendly, tidy and clean, removing things that can hurt children and young people and giving children some freedom over where they can be and what happens in their space.
Children and young people need an adult that they can trust. These adults are caring, truthful trustworthy and real, not fake.
Every child needs someone who they can turn to, who they can get advice from and someone who takes action when they need it.
Children and young people feel safe when they know what’s going to happen next. When things are stable and predictable Child Safe organisations work hard to help children feel this way.
Children and young people feel safe when they are told how adults are keeping them safe. Child Safe organisations give children and young people the right amount of information in the right way.
Children and young people want adults to use their position of power for them, rather than against them.
They want adults to work with them rather than just telling them what to do. They want to be given opportunities to build themselves up, to feel more confident. To have more control.
In some organizations children and young people don’t feel safe. And sometimes they have been harmed. Many told us that they were worried about bullying and violence by peers or by adults.
They felt that sometimes adults and organisations weren’t great at stopping them from being hurt.
When adults didn’t step in children and young people lost confidence in them and felt that they might not be able to turn to adults and with other problems.
Children and young people also felt that sometimes adults could be bullies. Adults could be harsh or unfair. Adults can make adults feel really small. Adults could hurt them or do things that weren’t right.
Sometimes adults who were meant to be looking after children weren’t good at looking after them. They didn’t show enough care and didn’t protect them from other children or adults.
Sometimes children and young people worry about things that might happen on the internet or on their phones. Sometimes they feel like adults don’t understand the online world. Young people thought that adults need to work with them to find ways to stay safe online.
Children and young people taught us that adults and organisations shouldn’t wait for bad things tohappen before stepping in. They should ask children and young people what they need stand up for them.
They should take action like keep an eye out. Take notice. Ask lots of questions.
Like, are you okay? Are you feeling safe?
They should take children’s worries seriously. Sometimes adults got distracted by their phones or said things like “talk to me later.”
But children and young people need to know the rules and what kind of behaviour to expect of adults. What’s right, what’s wrong and they need to know that it’s okay to ask questions, make complaints or talk about their worries.
If they make a complaint children and young people need to know what adults are going to do.
Saying “don’t worry, we’ve got this under control” isn’t very helpful. Adults need to share what they are doing, reassure young people and keep them updated.
It’s not helpful when adults say “that’s not my job” or “someone else can help.”
Adults need to work together to offer support.
When children and young people are hurt they sometimes need help from outside the organisation. It could be a parent or a family friend. It’s important for young people to know who they can turn to.
Life can be really tough for children and young people who have been hurt by adults or their peers.
They want adults to understand how they feel and help them to grow stronger and feel comfortable around other people again.
Children and young people felt that most adults and organisations were doing quite well in keeping them safe and feeling safe. They wanted to have a say in what would make things safer for themselves and for other children and young people.
They wanted to share their ideas with adults and be listened to when they say “that’s not going to work” or “there are other ways to make me safe.”
They also wanted to work with adults to find solutions together.
[on screen text] This study was conducted by the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University. For more information about the project go to https://safeguardingchildren.acu.edu.au
Animation written by Tim Moore, designed by Fuzz Illustration
and voice over by Pookies Production.
We would like to thank all the children and young people who participated in the study. We thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and ideas and your courage in tackling these tricky issues.
We hope that by sharing your stories we can help improve the safety of children and young people in organisations.
If you or someone you know has been hurt or harmed by an adult or in an organisation, please contact
Kids Helpline on 1800 059 059 or Lifeline on 131114
Video 2 – What makes an organisation safe for children
[Narrator] Children and young people told us that safety is often something you feel when you are safe. You are calm and relaxed.
When you’re unsafe you feel tense, you have butterflies and are creeped out.
Sometimes children feel safe when they are not safe and sometimes they are freaked out when things are pretty, okay.
Children and young people told us they need to have an adult they trust. They need to know that this adult will listen to them, believe them, take their worry seriously and protect them from any consequences.
Children and young people told us that they need to be surrounded by people who help them feel safe to feel safe in an organisation. They need people who respect them and value them.
Adults can make organisations feel safe by keeping spaces child friendly, tidy and clean, removing things that can hurt children and young people and giving children some freedom over where they can be and what happens in their space.
Children and young people need an adult that they can trust. These adults are caring, truthful trustworthy and real, not fake.
Every child needs someone who they can turn to, who they can get advice from and someone who takes action when they need it.
Children and young people feel safe when they know what’s going to happen next. When things are stable and predictable.
Child Safe organisations work hard to help children feel this way.
Children and young people feel safe when they are told how adults are keeping them safe. Child Safe organisations, give children and young people the right amount of information in the right way.
Children and young people want adults to use their position of power for them rather than against them.
They want adults to work with them rather than just telling them what to do. They want to be given opportunities to build themselves up to feel more confident, to have more control.
When children and young people are hurt, they sometimes need help from outside the organisation. It could be a parent or a family friend. It’s important for young people to know who they can turn to.
Life can be really tough for children and young people who have been hurt by adults or their peers.
They want adults to understand how they feel and help them heal to grow stronger and feel comfortable around other people again.
Children and young people felt that most adults and organisations were doing quite well in keeping them safe and feeling safe. They wanted to have a say in what would make things safer for themselves and for other children and young people.
They wanted to share their ideas with adults and be listened to when they say “that’s not going to work” or “there are other ways to make me safe.” They also wanted to work with adults to find solutions together.
[on screen text] This study was conducted by the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University. For more information about the project go to https://safeguardingchildren.acu.edu.au
Animation written by Tim Moore, designed by Fuzz Illustration
and voice over by Pookies Production.
We would like to thank all the children and young people who participated in the study. We thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and ideas and your courage in tackling these tricky issues.
We hope that by sharing your stories we can help improve the safety of children and young people in organisations.
If you or someone you know has been hurt or harmed by an adult or in an organisation, please contact
Kids Helpline on 1800 059 059 or Lifeline on 131114
Video 3 – What makes an organisation unsafe for children
[Narrator] Adults can think differently from children and young people about what it means to be safe.
Adults often rely on their own experiences to decide if someone, something or some place isn’t safe. Because of this, adults are sometimes not good at listening when children raise a concern, especially if they haven’t seen it themselves.
If children feel like they’re not being taken seriously or don’t feel understood they will probably stop sharing their worries.
In some organisations children and young people don’t feel safe. And sometimes they have been harmed.
Many told us that they were worried about bullying and violence by peers or by adults. They felt that sometimes adults and organisations weren’t great at stopping them from being hurt. When adults didn’t step in children and young people lost confidence in them and felt that they might not be able to.
Children and young people also felt that sometimes adults could be bullies. Adults could be harsh or unfair. Adults can make children feel really small. Adults could hurt them or do things that weren’t right.
Sometimes adults who were meant to be looking after children weren’t good at looking after them. They didn’t show enough care and didn’t protect them from other children or adults.
Sometimes children or young people worry about things that might happen on the internet or on their phones. Sometimes they feel like adults don’t understand the online world. Young people thought that adults need to work with them to find ways to stay safe online.
Children and young people thought that adults and organisations shouldn’t wait for bad things to happen before stepping in. They should ask children and young people what they need, stand up for them.
They should take action like keep an eye out. Take notice, ask lots of questions. Like, are you okay? Are you feeling safe? They should take children’s worries seriously.
Sometimes adults got distracted by their phones or said things like “talk to me later”, but never did.
Children and young people need to know the rules and what kind of behaviour to expect of adults, what’s right, what’s wrong and they need to know that it’s OK to ask questions, make complaints or talk about their worries.
If they make a complaint, children or young people need to know what adults are going to do. Saying don’t worry, we’ve got this under control isn’t very helpful. Adults need to share what they are doing, reassure young people and keep them updated.
It’s not helpful when adults say “that’s not my job” or “someone else can help.” Adults need to work together to offer support.
Children and young people felt that most adults and organisations were doing quite well in keeping them safe and feeling safe. They wanted to have a say in what would make things safer for themselves and for other children and young people.
They wanted to share their ideas with adults and be listened to when they say “that’s not going to work” or “there are other ways to make me safe”. They also wanted to work with adults to find solutions together.
[on screen text] This study was conducted by the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University. For more information about the project go to https://safeguardingchildren.acu.edu.au
Animation written by Tim Moore, designed by Fuzz Illustration
and voice over by Pookies Production.
We would like to thank all the children and young people who participated in the study. We thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and ideas and your courage in tackling these tricky issues.
We hope that by sharing your stories we can help improve the safety of children and young people in organisations.
If you or someone you know has been hurt or harmed by an adult or in an organisation, please contact
Kids Helpline on 1800 059 059 or Lifeline on 131114
Video 4 – About this study
[Narrator] In the past some children and young people have been hurt by adults who were supposed to be looking after them.
This included children and young people who were in hospital, at school, in youth detention. All were living in care away from their birth families.
Sometimes adults and organisations were good at responding and kept children and young people safe, but sometimes they failed. They didn’t believe children and young people. They didn’t put children first.
To make things better the Tasmanian Government formed a Commission of Inquiry because they were worried that bad things might keep happening to children. The Commission asked us to speak with children and young people about how adults and organisations can protect them and help them feel safe.
The Commission will use these ideas to shape their recommendations.
In 2022 we spoke with 59 children and young people across Tasmania one-on-one or in small groups. They told us that most of the time they felt safe in organisations.
These are some of the things they told us.
[on screen text] This study was conducted by the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University. For more information about the project go to https://safeguardingchildren.acu.edu.au
Animation written by Tim Moore, designed by Fuzz Illustration
and voice over by Pookies Production.
We would like to thank all the children and young people who participated in the study. We thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and ideas and your courage in tackling these tricky issues.
We hope that by sharing your stories we can help improve the safety of children and young people in organisations.
If you or someone you know has been hurt or harmed by an adult or in an organisation, please contact
Kids Helpline on 1800 059 059 or Lifeline on 131114