This page includes descriptions of reportable conduct. Please reach out to support services if needed.
The Reportable Conduct Scheme requires leaders of specific organisations to:
- notify the Independent Regulator upon becoming aware of conduct related to child abuse involving an adult worker (this is called reportable conduct), and
- conduct investigations (they may engage an investigator).
To understand the Reportable Conduct Scheme, it is important to know what amounts to reportable conduct. The definition of reportable conduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme is broader than suspected criminal behaviour alone.
Silence allows abuse to continue.
- From a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse in a Tasmanian institution
Click on the drop down menus below to read about each type of reportable conduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme.
Grooming
Grooming refers to behaviours that manipulate and control a child or young person for the purpose of eventually sexually abusing them. Trusted adults, friends, parents and workers in an organisation can also be groomed by a perpetrator to access and abuse a child or young person.
Grooming includes the ways a person who intends to sexually abuse a child or young person will:
- gain access to the child or young person
- create the conditions for the abuse to happen
- ensure they won’t get caught.
Grooming behaviours can be difficult to identify and don’t necessarily ‘look’ explicitly sexual, directly abusive, or criminal.In these cases, the main difference between acceptable behaviours and grooming behaviours is the motivation of the perpetrator to ultimately abuse the child or young person.
What it might look like
- befriending a child or young person in person and continuing to communicate with them online
- bribing, complimenting, or rewarding the child or young person to build a ‘special’ relationship with them
- building trust by giving the child or young person special attention or gifts
- building a relationship with the caregivers of the child or young person to establish trust
- inappropriate touching of a child or young person, including tickling and play fighting
- asking a child or young person not to tell anyone about their behaviour
- inappropriately allowing a child or young person to overstep boundaries.
Grooming may involve additional behaviours, and can be perpetrated by strangers, or someone the child or young person knows and trusts.
Where does it happen?
- in person
- online
- a combination of both.
These behaviours include finding ways to
- spend time alone with the child or young person
- create a special relationship with the child or young person, their caregivers, or other trusted adults
- isolate the child or young person from their peers and the adults in their lives
- make the child or young person feel responsible for the abuse they are experiencing
- exert power and control over the child or young person to make them feel dependent on the abuser and feel they cannot speak out against the abuse.
Online grooming
This is the process of establishing and building a relationship with a child or young person while online to facilitate sexual abuse or other forms of exploitation that is either:
- physical (in person)
- or online.
What are the signs to look for?
Signs that a child or young person is experiencing or has experienced grooming may include, but are not limited to:
- changes in behaviour
- being in possession of unexplained gifts
- being secretive.
“(Abusers) usually are charismatic. They usually are well-liked; they usually are in high positions of power that can't be challenged. That’s why we need to shift the way people think about child sexual abuse, because it’s often not ‘a creepy guy in a dark alley’ who is a stranger.”
- From a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse in a Tasmanian institution
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| Only the child or young person themselves can be groomed by the perpetrator. | Trusted adults, friends, and other workers in an organisations can also be groomed by a perpetrator. |
| A child or young person always knows when they are being groomed. | A child or young person may not realise they are being groomed. The abuser may make the child or young person believe they are in a special or caring relationship to make the child or young person less likely to tell someone about the abuse. |
| Grooming is well understood by the community. | Research tells us that more education is needed to make sure people understand what grooming is. For example, a national study, conducted in 2021 found 10% of people who responded, were either uncertain or didn’t believe that an adult manipulating a child or teenager into sending an explicit photo of themselves, is grooming or abuse/exploitation. |
| Providing appropriate sexuality and gender diversity education material and support services, with the intention of supporting a child or young person, is grooming. | Providing appropriate sexuality and gender diversity education material and support services, with the intention of supporting a child or young person, is not grooming. Grooming is conduct committed with the ultimate aim of abusing a child or young person. You can find out more about supporting and empowering LGBTIQA+ children and young people through online resources such as the Department for Education, Children and Young People’s LGBTIQA+ equality in Tasmanian government schools resources. |
Resources
| Resource link | Description |
|---|---|
| TedXSydney - To stop abuse, we first need to understand grooming - Grace Tame | This 20-minute video is about the tactics used by perpetrators of abuse. |
| NSW Office of the Children's Guardian - About grooming - Information for child-related organisations video | This is a four-minute video developed by the Office of the Children’s Guardian to help people learn about what grooming can look like. |
Physical violence
Physical violence, as well as the threat of physical violence, is a type of reportable conduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme.
What it might look like
- Actual physical violence: the intentional or reckless application of physical force to a person without lawful justification or excuse.
- Apprehended physical violence: any act which intentionally or recklessly causes a person to apprehend immediate and unlawful violence to the person.
Examples of actual physical violence include:
- hitting
- striking
- punching
- pushing
- kicking
- spitting
- dragging
- using an object to hit or strike
- using restraint or excessive force that is inappropriate to the situation.
Examples of apprehended physical violence include:
- angrily punching a wall next to a child or young person’s head causing them to fear they were about to be punched
- standing over a child or young person in an intimidating way that causes them to fear they will be hurt
- verbally threatening to physically harm a child or young person.
"Being aware of your body language is important when a child or young person is disclosing any type of harm. But for physical harm, it can be especially important to avoid sudden gestures or movement that may remind the child or young person of being hit or grabbed."
- Advice from a young Tasmanian with lived experience of sexual abuse or violence
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| Physical disciplining a child never ‘counts’ as child abuse. | Physical discipline will become abuse if it results in harm or injury to a child. Physical punishment can quickly escalate to physical abuse and has similar negative outcomes for children. |
| An adult telling a child they are going to break their arm, isn’t an example of physical violence because physical contact didn’t occur. | In fact, this would be an example of apprehended physical violence, where a child is made to believe they are about to be harmed. |
Resources
Resource link | Description |
|---|---|
| Victorian Commission for Children and Young People - Fact Sheet: Physical Violence under the Reportable Conduct Scheme | This resource, developed by the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, provides information for organisations to help them identify situations where physical violence has occurred. It relates to Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme (which is distinct from Tasmania’s) but may still be a useful resource for Tasmanian organisations. |
Relevant offences that constitute reportable conduct
The definition of ‘reportable conduct’ in the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Act 2023 includes ‘relevant offences’ because there are other types of conduct that need to be reported, but don’t easily fit into the other categories of reportable conduct.
What it might look like
- Sexual offences such as committing an indecent act with a child, production of child exploitation material, or assault with indecent intent (when committed against, with, or in the presence of a child). Sexual offences are also their own category of reportable conduct.
- Failing to report the abuse of a child without reasonable excuse. For example, a child’s family friend knows they are being intentionally deprived of food, water and clean clothes but fails to report this to anyone because they ‘don’t want to go to the effort’.
- Female genital mutilation when committed against, with, or in the presence of a child.
"Once everyone comes on board (with the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework) it will be so powerful.”
- From a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse in a Tasmanian institution
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| If an offence isn’t specifically listed in the Act or the Regulations, it isn’t a ‘relevant offence’ and therefore, isn’t reportable conduct. | ‘Relevant offences’ can also include equivalent or similar offences committed in other states or territories. |
Sexual offences and sexual misconduct
Sexual offences are criminal offences of a sexual nature that are listed in the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Act 2023.
Sexual misconduct is behaviour that may not necessarily form part of a sexual offence, but includes inappropriate behaviour, physical contact, and voyeurism, speech or communication.
What it might look like
Sexual offences are criminal offences of a sexual nature such as:
- persistent sexual abuse of child
- procuring child or young person for sexual abuse
- rape
- distributing, possessing, making and/or accessing child exploitation material offences
- incest.
Sexual misconduct includes inappropriate behaviour, contact and communication such as:
- an adult massaging a child or young person’s shoulders, when it does not form part of their role
- communicating with a child or young person outside of the usual channels of communication such as a teacher texting a student in the school holidays asking them if they want to meet up
- an adult having inappropriate conversations with a child or young person of a sexual nature
- making comments to a child or young person that sexualises their appearance.
When committed against, with or in the presence of a child, this conduct is reportable conduct.
The Child and Youth Safe Organisations Act 2023 lists of the types of offences that are sexual offences and sexual misconduct.
About 1 in 4 Australians have experienced child sexual abuse.
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| A teenager inadvertently overhearing an adult conversation of a sexual nature is an example of sexual misconduct. | An adult deliberately engaging a teenager in a conversation of a sexual nature is an example of sexual misconduct. |
| Sexual abuse of a child or young person is rare. | This is not the case. A recent study has shown nearly 1 in 10 Australian men have sexually offended against children or young people. |
Resources
| Resource link | Description |
|---|---|
| Victorian CCYP Fact Sheet: Sexual misconduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme | This resources, developed by the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, provides guidance on identifying sexual misconduct. It relates to Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme (which is distinct from Tasmania’s) but may still be a useful resource for Tasmanian organisations. |
Significant emotional or psychological harm
Emotional or psychological maltreatment can occur when the conduct of an adult causes harm to a child or young person’s wellbeing or development, or both.
When these types of maltreatment are significant, they are reportable conduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme.
What it might look like
- continually ignoring or rejecting a child or young person
- forcing a child or young person to do things by scaring them
- constantly criticising, humiliating or blaming a child or young person
- constantly swearing, yelling or screaming at a child or young person
- telling a child or young person that they’re worthless, unloved or not enough
- withholding love, support, praise or attention from a child or young person
- bullying, teasing, insulting or belittling a child or young person
- treating a child or young person badly because of things they can’t change (e.g. disability, gender, sexuality)
- threatening abuse or threats to harm loved ones or pets.
It’s important to know emotional and psychological harm:
- often co-exists with other types of harm
- can be caused by a one-off act or by a series of behaviours.
What are the signs to look for?
- Significant emotional or psychological harm can be hard to identify, and a child or young person may have difficulty articulating that they are suffering this type of harm.
- However, changes in a child or young person’s normal behaviour or temperament may indicate that they are experiencing emotional or psychological harm.
“It can be hard to speak about something like this and getting out the thoughts. Some people think that children are lying if they take big pauses, but it’s because it’s hard to find the words.”
- Advice from a young Tasmanian with lived experience of sexual abuse or violence
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| Emotional or psychological abuse is less serious than physical abuse. | The impacts of emotional or psychological abuse are just as harmful as physical abuse. Although physical abuse may lead to more visible signs of harm, it's crucial to fully grasp the significance of safeguarding a child or young person’s emotional and psychological wellbeing. |
| Gender is not a relevant factor in the prevalence of emotional abuse. | Child maltreatment is a gendered problem. Emotional and psychological abuse, as well as sexual abuse and neglect, disproportionately affects girls (1.5 times the rate for boys). |
Resources
| Resource link | Description |
|---|---|
| Victorian Commission for Children and Young People- Information Sheet: Behaviour that causes significant emotional and psychological harm | This resource, developed by the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, provides an overview of the types of behaviours that can cause children and young people significant emotional and psychological harm. It relates to Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme (which is distinct from Tasmania’s) but may still be a useful resource for Tasmanian organisations. |
| Western Australian Department of Health – Information Sheet Emotional abuse is a Child Protection Issue | This resource, developed by the Western Australian Department of Health, provides examples of behaviours that may contribute to emotional and psychological abuse, and outlines some possible impacts. |
Significant neglect
Significant neglect of a child or young person is a type of reportable conduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme. It is the deliberate or reckless failure to meet the basic needs of the child or young person. It is not accidental, or a result of the child’s family or carer experiencing poverty or financial hardship.
When neglect is significant, it is a type of reportable conduct. Significant neglect means the neglect is more than trivial or insignificant. But the behaviour doesn’t need to have a lasting, permanent effect to be considered significant neglect.
Neglect usually involves a pattern of repeated failure to meet a child or young person’s wellbeing needs, but in some circumstances may be a single, significant incident where a caregiver fails to fulfil their duty, resulting in actual harm to a child or young person, or where there is the potential for significant harm to a child or young person.
‘Cumulative neglect’ can also occur through a combination of different adverse circumstances or events. Cumulative neglect recognises the compounding or combined impact that numerous less significant failures can have on a child or young person.
What it might look like
- deliberately preventing a child or young person from attending school because it’s ‘not worth it’
- leaving a child or young person alone or unsupervised for an extended period of time
- a failure to acknowledge the seriousness of a medical condition or illness and therefore not seeking or complying with appropriate treatment when able to.
- deliberately leaving a child or young person extremely dirty or suffering from a skin condition due to poor hygiene
- rejecting, abandoning, belittling, or calling a child or young person names
- shaming, isolating or demeaning a child or young person.
Ask yourself
- Was there a deliberate or intentional failure to meet a child or young person’s basic needs?
- Was there a reckless failure to meet a child or young person’s basic needs?
- Could the person have chosen to meet the needs of the child or young person but didn’t?
- Could their decision have had a significant effect on the safety or wellbeing of the child or young person who is the victim of the neglect?
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| It’s easy to recognise significant neglect. | In fact, neglect is often hard to recognise. Often there is no specific incident that reaches a ‘threshold’. Rather, neglect is often characterised by low or inconsistent levels of care over long periods of time. |
| A single incident or behaviour can never amount to significant neglect. It must be a course of conduct | In fact, in certain circumstances, single, serious acts can constitute significant neglect such as leaving an infant alone overnight. |
Resources
| Resource link | Description |
|---|---|
| Victorian Commission for Children and Young People - Fact Sheet: What is significant neglect? | This is a fact sheet developed by the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People to help people learn about what significant neglect can look like. It relates to Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme (which is distinct from Tasmania’s) but may still be a useful resource for Tasmanian organisations. |
The Independent Regulator is distinct from the Strong Families Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line.
The Independent Regulator provides regulatory oversight of organisational responses to concerns about adult worker conduct towards a child.
If you have concerns about the welfare of a child, you should contact the Strong Families Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line on 1800 000 123.
It is possible that you may need to contact the Strong Families Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line and the Independent Regulator.
To help you determine who needs to be contacted, read the Reporting Pathways A3 poster resource.