What we all need to know

Every child, young person and adult has the right to be respected and safe from all forms of abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation. 

We are all responsible for the safety of children and young people. 

Victims and survivors have a right to services that are affordable, available, and informed by lived experience. 

All victims and survivors deserve healing and recovery, and access to justice. 

Every victim and survivor has the right to services where they feel safe to be themselves and confident that they will be respected and that any response provided is inclusive of their world view. 

A culturally safe response for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people recognises 
the ongoing and intergenerational impacts of invasion, colonisation, the Stolen 
Generations, assimilation, institutional abuse and racism. 

All victims and survivors have a right to receive gender-specific and gender-sensitive responses for support, education, and prevention. 

Child sexual abuse involves asymmetrical power dynamics where the perpetrator uses their dominant or more powerful position to sexually abuse a child or young person.

Gender matters in relation to child sexual abuse. According to the findings from a national survey, girls are twice as likely to experience child sexual abuse and significantly more likely to experience multiple forms of child maltreatment than boys. Men are more likely to perpetrate child sexual abuse in all settings – institutional, in the home, and online. Gender diverse people report higher rates of child sexual abuse than cis gender individuals and may face additional barriers to disclosure and access to support services.

You can learn more on our Who perpetrates child sexual abuse? page.

All victims and survivors have a right to be meaningfully engaged in decision-making about the support and response they would like. 

Each victim and survivor is more than their trauma or abuse experience, and has the right to choose and receive services that recognise their agency, resilience and resourcefulness. 

Any response to child sexual abuse must be trauma-informed and significantly informed by the lived and living experiences of children, young people and adults.

All victims and survivors have the right to expect responses that recognise their strengths, capabilities and goals and the importance of their support networks. 

Use of language that is comfortable for victims and survivors and conveys respect and encourages collaboration is foundational to strengths-based approaches.

The knowledge of people with lived and living experience of child sexual abuse is critical for understanding its impact and developing best-practice responses to victims and survivors of all ages, life stages, backgrounds, and communities. The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse recommends using an approach which is informed by the voices and stories of victims and survivors in the design of responses and solutions for healing and recovery. 

There is no one common experience for victims and survivors. What a victim or survivor might want could be very different from your assumptions about their needs. 

You might like to visit the Australian Childhood Foundation’s ‘Our Collective Experience Project’ to appreciate the lived experience of some victims and survivors.

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study (2023) generated the first nationally representative rates of all 5 types of child maltreatment – physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence – and their associated outcomes in Australia. The study surveyed 8,503 participants aged 16 years and over and found the national prevalence of child sexual abuse in Australia is 28.5% (more than 1 in 4 Australians). The study also found: 

• more than 1 in 3 girls experience child sexual abuse
• almost 1 in 5 boys experience child sexual abuse
• girls are twice as likely to experience child sexual abuse as boys.

The study did not ask whether the person identified as non-binary at the time of the abuse. Adults who are gender diverse reported having experienced child sexual abuse at rates much higher than the rest of the population (52%).

In a 2020 US study of a nationally representative sample of 13,052 children and adolescents:

• girls were mostly sexually abused by males (88.4%)
• boys were sexually abused by both males (45.6%) and females (54.4%). 

Child sexual abuse perpetrated online and/or assisted by technology is an increasing concern in Australia and globally, encompassing a wide range of behaviours. In the 2022–23 financial year:

• 40,232 reports of child sexual exploitation were received by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation Child Protection Triage Unit, up from 14,285 reports 5 years ago.
• 11,636 complaints were made to the eSafety Commissioner’s Online Content Scheme, with 87% related to child sexual abuse, child abuse, or paedophile activity. This represents a 110% increase from the previous reporting period (2021–22).

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (2023) reported that:

• women with disability are more likely to report experiencing physical and sexual violence and abuse before the age of 15 than women without disability
• more than one in four women with disability report experiencing abuse before the age of 15 (28%), compared with 13% of women without disability
• women with disability are more than twice as likely to experience sexual abuse before the age of 15 (20%) than women without disability (9%)
• at hearings, some women described a repeated pattern of violence from those with important roles in their lives that began with violence perpetrated by caregivers in childhood
• accounts given by First Nations women with disability showed the impact that experiencing or witnessing violence or abuse from family members in childhood had on them in later life, including difficulty in finding help.

Children and young people frequently know the person or people who sexually abuse them. They can be an immediate or extended family member, a family friend, a peer or another, often trusted, person. Child sexual abuse can occur in a range of settings, including within families, online, within organisations and other settings. Even when the abuse occurs in an organisational setting or online, it is likely the child or young person will know or believe they know the person sexually abusing them. 

Children and young people and their families or carers may be groomed to ensure ongoing access to the child or young person. The perpetrator uses grooming to manipulate and control the child or young person, their family or other support networks. Grooming can take place in person and online. For some children and young people, grooming and abuse that begins online leads to offline acts of child sexual abuse, meaning the distinction between offline and online child sexual abuse is blurred. 

Grooming can allow children and young people to believe they know and trust the person or their online persona. The perpetrator may coerce or threaten the child to maintain their silence by telling them no-one will believe them or that it is their fault for letting the abuse occur. They may also bribe or provide inducements to obtain the child or young person’s compliance and avoid detection. 

There are also children and young people who may display harmful sexual behaviours. Harmful sexual behaviours fall outside what may be considered developmentally typical or socially appropriate, cause harm to themselves or others, and occur either face-to-face and/or via technology. When these behaviours involve others, they may include a lack of consent, reciprocity or mutuality, and may involve the use of coercion, force, or a misuse of power. Harmful sexual behaviours evoke worry about the development and wellbeing of the child, young person, or others involved, and where they involve other children or young people, the behaviours may cause significant harm and may be experienced as abusive by the other children and young people involved. Harmful sexual behaviours may include illegal behaviours that require a criminal justice response. Harmful sexual behaviours can occur in any setting, including in person and online. 

While this Guide does not provide advice on supporting children and young people who have displayed concerning or harmful sexual behaviours, it is critical to note that these children or young people also require holistic, child-centred and trauma-informed therapeutic support to address their behaviours and broader wellbeing needs. Further, as evidenced in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission), adverse experiences in childhood, such as sexual or physical abuse and exposure to family and domestic violence, may contribute to children or young people displaying harmful sexual behaviours. 

Evidence shows that children and young people who have received effective therapeutic responses show low rates of the behaviours recurring or escalating post-intervention. Enhancing responses to children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours will lead to a reduction in the incidence of child sexual abuse. 
 

The severity or types of impacts experienced by victims and survivors are influenced by many complex and interconnected factors. These are often referred to as the dynamics of child sexual abuse and include: 

• the nature of the abuse (for example, the type, duration, and frequency)
• the child’s relationship to the perpetrator or child or young person who has displayed harmful sexual behaviours
• the social, historical, and institutional contexts of the abuse
• the victim or survivor’s characteristics, including whether they have intersecting identities and therefore have faced discrimination or barriers to accessing services
• the victim or survivor’s circumstances and experiences, such as prior maltreatment, financial circumstances and experiences of disclosure
• how the victim or survivor makes sense of the abuse, and the narrative the victim or survivor develops about why they were targeted. 

The dynamics of child sexual abuse are a part of the profound betrayal of trust experienced by a victim or survivor. Testimony provided to the Royal Commission comprehensively documented that many participants had never told anyone of their abuse previously, or had disclosed and were not believed or received a very negative response. Victims and survivors participating in the Royal Commission emphasised that they wished they knew they were allowed to speak up, would have been believed, and wouldn’t have got into trouble for disclosing.

It is helpful to be aware of the wide-ranging effects of child sexual abuse and that every victim and survivor’s needs are different. The impacts of child sexual abuse can vary for each individual victim or survivor. Victims and survivors themselves should be considered the best experts on how they have been affected and the specific impacts on them. 

For some, the abuse can have profound and lasting impacts. This can include complex trauma which pervades all aspects of their lives and causes a range of effects over their lifetime. It is important to recognise that online child sexual abuse can be as damaging as offline child sexual abuse and may even complicate the impact of the abuse. Victims and survivors may experience emotional, physical, relational and psychological consequences which may differ over the short-to-medium term and longer term. However, some may not perceive themselves to be profoundly harmed by any of these experiences. 

The Royal Commission noted that the impacts of child sexual abuse on victims and survivors are shaped by various factors and contexts. For example:

• for many survivors, the impacts of child sexual abuse are experienced as cumulative harm, resulting from multiple periods of sexual abuse and other types of childhood maltreatment over prolonged periods
• vulnerability to sexual abuse and its adverse impacts can be heightened for some Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander victims and survivors. Connection to family, culture, and Country can be experienced as both a strength and protective factor
• the effects of child sexual abuse can reach into old age, and older victims and survivors entering aged care facilities may face particular challenges relating to the loss of privacy and control
• sources of strength and resilience for victims and survivors may include strong relationships and support from families, peers, and significant others, including friends, advocates, and support networks; accessing counselling/therapy; education; work and leisure activities; spirituality; and cultural connection. 

Where disclosure has not occurred or has not been helpfully managed, a victim or survivor may seek help for the effects of their experiences from mental health services, drug and alcohol services, and in criminal justice contexts. Victims and survivors often describe endless rounds of help-seeking and inappropriate referrals and, in particular, victims and survivors with complex needs may continue to cycle in and out of systems. For further information on these issues, visit the Blue Knot Foundation and the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse. 

The 6 Practice Areas in this Guide build on these key messages.