Resources for children and young people

This guide is to help children and young people understand child safety and child sexual abuse, to recognise the signs of child sexual abuse, and to learn about what the government is doing to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse. It also provides practical ways for child and young people to keep themselves and their friends safe. The guide was developed with the Australian Human Rights Commission and is recommended for children aged 9 years and up.

The National Strategy First Annual Report 2023: A Guide for Children and Young People helps children and young people to understand and engage with the National Strategy’s key deliverables over December 2022 to December 2023. It provides an overview of new resources available to children and young people and includes educational content to improve their understanding of child safety and child sexual abuse. The guide was developed in consultation with the Australian Human Rights Commission and agencies leading progress under the National Strategy.

This video helps children and young people with disability and caregivers learn about their right to safety in an organisation. It supports them with the tools and knowledge to self-advocate on topics like accessibility, communication needs and preferences, inclusion, child safe policies and practices, cultural safety and child abuse, including child sexual abuse.

This booklet is full of fun and interactive activities developed to help adults identify everyday opportunities they can use to have open conversations with children and young people to keep them safe from child sexual abuse. The booklet is designed to help children learn about staying safe, understanding boundaries, and knowing who to talk to if they feel unsafe. It encourages conversations between children and trusted adults in a positive, age appropriate and engaging way. This booklet is recommended for children aged 5 years and up.

This activity helps preschool and primary school children create a ‘safety team’, which is a group of adults you choose to keep them safe. They are called ‘safety helpers’, ‘safe people’ or ‘trusted adults’. Children and young people may like to complete this activity with a friend, family member or other adult and see who they list as their safety team.

This poster and leaflet helps children and young people understand that having the right to speak up means they are allowed to and must be listened to. It also supports children and young people to speak up by explaining how they can tell someone about their problems and the steps that might happen next.

My superhero voice is an age-appropriate storybook which supports parents, carers and other adults from all cultures and backgrounds to have preventative conversations about child sexual abuse with children and young people. This storybook empowers children to use their “superhero voice” to speak up when something doesn’t feel right, and emphasises the importance of telling a trusted adult about any concerns. It is recommended adults read this with children and young people aged 5 years and up and has been translated into 17 languages.

We partnered with children’s music group, Teeny Tiny Stevies, on a song called ‘One Talk at a Time’. The song teaches children and young people about their bodies’ warning signs, not keeping secrets and talking to trusted adults. Adults can use it as a memorable and fun way to start conversations with the children and young people in their lives about body safety and child sexual abuse.

This activity helps teenagers to create a ‘safety team’, which is a group of adults teenagers choose to keep them safe. Teenagers might like to write their trusted adults down in a journal, on a computer or phone.

These worksheets and posters were created for organisations that engage with First Nations children and young people to encourage reflection on safety, respect and rights. Children and young people might like to explore them by themselves and think about what makes them feel culturally safe, who they can talk to if they are worried, and whether they know how to make a complaint or raise a concern.

My Say, My Way is a storybook designed to help teach First Nations kids about body safety. It follows cousins Billy and Bindy as they learn about their bodies, boundary setting, consent, and safe and unsafe touch. The back of the book has guidance for adults to help them explain some of the words used in the storybook. This storybook is part of the ‘My Say, My Way’ resources that were co-created with First Nations men and women, mothers, fathers, sisters, Aunties, Uncles, and Elders from across Australia.

My Safe Way is a map that kids can fill in to identify safe people and safe places in their community. These are the people and places that children and young people can talk to or go to if they ever feel uncomfortable, worried or unsafe. You can download and print the coloured version or the black and white version for little ones that want to get creative and do their own colouring in.

Find Your Way is a board game that can be played with kids to help teach them about body safety. It’s played in a similar way to snakes and ladders, but with the goal of helping adults to educate the children and young people in their life about what’s safe and unsafe. If you land at the bottom of a ladder, you can move up to the top of the ladder. If you land on a question, go up the ladder if you know the answer, or slide down and learn if you don’t. You can use a dice and counters you already have or print and make the ones we’ve created.