This week a mum reached out to me. She had read headlines claiming taxpayer money was being used to "affirm paedophiles' feelings", and she was deeply disturbed. She asked me whether it was true, and if it was, how she could speak up.
I completely understand her reaction. As parents, our instinct i...
Help Kristi... my child came home and asked me what a "69" is, and I completely froze and I didn’t know what to say?
Kids hear things. In the playground, on the school bus, in group chats, in song lyrics, on YouTube and in game chats. Words like "69", "horny", "nudes" and "porn" get thrown around l...
Can I trust this family with my child for a few hours? Is this daycare actually going to keep them safe? What about a sleepover, is that a step too far?
If you've ever sat with questions like these and felt your stomach drop, you're not alone. Every parent I speak to, whether at a school hall or on...
Picture this.
You're at a family barbecue. Your toddler doesn't want to hug Grandpa goodbye, and you say, gently, "That's okay, you don't have to." Grandpa laughs it off, but you catch the look. The one that says soft parents raising soft kids. Later, over dinner, someone mentions your daughter "tal...
For years, every time a childcare worker has been charged with offending against children in their care, the public conversation has followed the same script: shock, outrage, calls for "better vetting," and then silence - until it happens again.
It’s a reasonable response but I don't think that scrip...
By now you've probably seen the headlines. A childcare worker in Sydney, now publicly named after a court-ordered suppression was lifted, is facing over 300 charges relating to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children across more than 60 early education centres, spanning 16 years of employment....
 What to say when the adults you love are modelling the exact behaviours that put children at risk.
I want to talk about something that doesn’t get said enough.
The behaviours we most commonly associate with grooming and child sexual abuse - the testing of boundaries, the forced physical affection...
I spent nearly six years as a detective specialising in child sexual abuse investigations. In that time, I interviewed hundreds of children and sat across the table from the people who hurt them.
One thing was always true: the abuse didn't start with the abuse.
It started long before - with a proc...
I received a message recently that made me think about all the times when I was still in the Police and I felt like protecting kids was an impossible task and being a Police Officer didn't help anyone.Â
I had many days where I I felt that what I was doing didn't matter. If I'm honest, I still have da...
Recent cases involving female educators and carers have understandably shaken people and forced many of us to re-examine assumptions about who we trust with our children.
Not because abuse by a female perpetrator is new - but because when a woman, particularly a trusted adult such as a teacher, har...
After years working as a detective with children who had been abused, I started noticing something.Â
It wasn't obvious at first but as time went on, certain conditions became consistently apparent.Â
Different families. Different ages. Different settings. Different offenders.Â
Some cases were adult-...
Before I became a police officer, I didn’t know much about child sexual abuse. It just wasn’t something people talked about when I was a child growing up or as I became a parent myself.
I joined the WA Police before my daughter had turned 2-years-old and she grew up with me in the blue uniform, hel...
