Reporting on child sexual abuse – guidance for media and victims and survivors

Advice for victims and survivors engaging with the media

Dani: Victim survivors of child sexual abuse aren't just what happened to them. Victim survivors don’t only want to share their traumas and their experiences, but they also want to share their ideas for change. 

Alison: For myself, it was definitely about creating a legitimate platform for that story, and being able to advocate for change. Sit down, and think about the purpose of your work, what you want to achieve from it. I think that is probably the most critical message, is why are you going to the media? And hold onto that why. Gather in the people you know are going to accept your story, accept you. 

Dani: Because of course, we all have our own reasons for speaking to the media, but the media might also have their own reasons for wanting to speak to you. 

The National Office for Child Safety has developed a number of media guidelines and resources to support advocates who are engaging with the media.

Alison: There’s a lot at stake. It is a very brave thing to do. Definitely read the media guides. I think they’re fantastic. I wish I’d had them for me. They’re at childsafety.gov.au.

Be very gentle on yourself as well. Because you’ve done something very courageous.

Empowering victims and survivors engaging with the media

Harrison: So, my name is Harrison James. I’m a survivor of child sexual abuse. I’m an activist and the Co-Founder of the Your Reference Ain’t Relevant Campaign.

Media, in my opinion, has a long way to go. Where it has been based on facts, they haven’t gone down the pathway of sensationalism or trying to exacerbate the drama of it, or dramatize it. It’s not going to educate the public in the type of rhetoric and the type of conversations that we need to engage with in order to combat child sexual abuse. Because that’s why survivors like me share our stories in the first place. To ensure that want we went through as kids does not happen to any other child in the community.

Dani: My name is Dani Villafaña. I’m a campaigner, survivor, advocate and I’m a Co-Founder of Youth Against Sexual Violence Australia. I’ve dedicated the past few years to advocating for other young victim survivors of sexual violence, particularly those who have been impacted in their school context. 

I think that we have seen some really great results from positive reporting of child sexual abuse in the media. Those results happen when victims and survivors are empowered to tell their stories on their own terms. 

Speaking to the press can be a really daunting thing. I think it’s important to really think through the long-term impacts that speaking to the media might have on your life. I wish I’d known that speaking to the media often means that the story is no longer entirely within your control, and that people can take your voice or your storytelling and use it in ways to push their own agenda and represent it in other ways that you won’t always have control over. 

One of the ways you can find a safe and credible person in the media to speak to is first by looking at what journalist have already done this type of reporting. There are some journalists who have worked with a lot of different victim survivors and advocates, and they've been really diligent about it. Reach out to other survivor advocates who are doing work similar to yours, and some would be willing to help you find that person to get those stories and get your advocacy out there. 

Harrison: My advice would be to ensure that you have boundaries set and boundaries put in place. It's really, really important. You're not infringing on anyone by voicing or vocalizing those boundaries. It's really important that you do. 

Dani: Because of course we have our own reasons for speaking to the media, but the media might also have their own reasons for wanting to speak to you. And if you're in a position where they're asking you questions you're not comfortable with, or they're reporting from an angle that doesn't really represent or reflect your own opinions, it's okay to say that you're not okay with that and that you don't want this story to go out.

The survivor advocate community is one that is incredibly empowering, and there are a number of networks and spaces where if you reach out to them, they'll be willing to help you and have a chat.

The National Office for Child Safety has developed a number of media guidelines and resources to support advocates who are engaging with the media. Victim survivors of child sexual abuse aren't just what happened to them. Victim survivors don't only want to share their traumas and their experiences, but they also want to share their ideas for change.

Harrison: For you, as a survivor, to be standing on two feet today after facing such adversity, that is a testament of your worth. The fact that you are standing here today is a testament to your resilience. It's a testament to your ability to bounce back.

It's something I know I'm proud of, and I think, I think that's the type of discussion that we need to have with each other.

Information for the media

Nina: My name is Nina Funnell and I work as a journalist, specifically reporting on sexual assault. So, I decided to work in this particular area of journalism after being a survivor myself and having other media report on my case.

And the thing that I learnt from that is that there are little things that, had they been done a little bit differently, it could have really changed the outcome of how I felt about how my story was told.

Harrison: So, my name is Harrison James. I'm a survivor of child sexual abuse. I'm an activist, and the Co-Founder of the Your Reference Ain't Relevant Campaign. 

We have to let people, no matter who they are, tell their story in their own words and honour that and believe it in the moment. And that's something that we should really strive towards.

Dani: My name is Dani Villafaña. I'm a campaigner, survivor, advocate, and I'm a Co-Founder of Youth Against Sexual Violence Australia. I've dedicated the past few years to advocating for other young victim survivors of sexual violence, particularly those who have been impacted in their school contexts.

When we see media reporting on violence inappropriately, it can have the outcome of perpetuating really harmful stereotypes that don't help survivors. It can be at times a really positive tool to bring about social change.

Nina: One of the things that I tell other journalists is that the survivor will remember the process and how they felt during that process, just as much as they will remember the final piece of journalism or the final outcome. And the media plays a role in shaping the wider conversation around child sexual violence and that's a really important responsibility.

And I think one thing that the media can do better is to report fairly, ethically and accurately. Language is powerful. Language matters. The language we choose to use and the language we also choose not to use has a powerful impact. Not just on the readership, but also on the survivor themselves.

We can be contributing to myths and stereotypes which make disclosure and reporting and empathy more difficult.

Harrison: It's a crime that is rife with expert levels of manipulation and coercion, and to encapsulate that in a single article is rather difficult, but we have to ensure that the gravity is showcased. We have to ensure that survivors are heard. That their voices are uplifted and taken very seriously. 

Media shapes public perception. If we don't use that responsibility or understand that responsibility we're going to fail survivors. 

Nina: Firstly, acknowledge that there is a power differential between you and the survivor. Spend time asking the survivor what's important to them. What do they want to get out of this process? Don't make assumptions either because every survivor is different. Also, understanding that safety looks really different for each person.

If a journalist sets out to build quick trust, that's often very problematic because we're talking about a group of people who have already had their trust violated. So if your goal is to accelerate intimacy artificially, then very likely you're recreating dynamics of grooming. So for me, I don't think about it in terms of building trust. I think about it in terms of how do you build safety. And part of that is about being honest about the limitations of journalism, and being accurate in what the process is about and what's going to happen. You don't want to overpromise and under deliver for a survivor. Because that will exacerbate the harm, and that will exacerbate their feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability.

Dani: I think being transparent and honest and opening a conversation with the victim survivor you're working with can be really important in making sure that it's an empowering and positive experience for them. 

Nina: We know that there are a lot of journalists who want to do this work well, and they want to do it responsibly and ethically, and it is hard work to be hearing the stories and working with trauma. It's also hard if you're carrying your own trauma. Which is why I think it's really important that there is resourcing and support, not just for victim survivors, but also for journalists.

Thankfully, there are supports and resources available for journalists and editors and others who want to do this work well. There are some great resources available for journalists and editors who want to learn more. One is the media guides by childsafety.gov.au. There's also the Dart Centre.

Whether or not we're doing that work well is not just a question of our intentions. We can have the best intentions in the world and still be doing harm. We have to acknowledge that and we have to reflect on our own practice. 

Harrison: The one thing that I would want the people of Australia to know about child sexual abuse is that it is simply not enough to just listen to these stories. We must have the courage to act upon them. The more we talk about this, the more we shine that light on it, the more we get closer to a world without child sexual abuse.