Hey OUG, thanks for the links. This is the change:

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/0C23593002B1ACBCCA25756E0021E66C?Open&shownotes

“(i) to raise the “risk of harm” reporting threshold so that a child or young person will not be reported to the Director-General of the Departmentof Community Services (DoCS) unless the circumstances that are causing concern for the safety, welfare or well-being of the child or young person are present to a significant extent, and (ii) to extend the circumstances when a child or young person is at risk of significant harm to include the situation when the child or young person is not receiving an education as required by the Education Act 1990, and (iii) to provide for alternative mandatory reporting arrangements under which matters relating to children being at risk of significant harm may initially be assessed within the reporter’s agency instead of being reported directly to DoCS, and…”

Anti:”The WA figures said there were just over 20 verified cases of sexual asault of children in a year. You said you think the figure is much higher: how much higher? How do we find out?”

Verified? Personally I would add at least three zeros to that figure.

I would say those figures are about it being proven in court. Once they have a kid in care if they disclose other stuff that has happened. I bet those ones are about “convictions” and bugger all parents actually get charged for what they have done. The stats on why a child was initially placed in care is often very different to the information that comes up later.

Child brides and our past. Maybe they were perverts, shorter life expectancy, less time to procreate etc.

What should be done? I wish I knew, start with transparency in the courts and within the department. I am never going to understand FOI files with big black crossed out bits.

Remove privacy laws for the under 18's. Actually I'm not sure how I feel about that one.

Anti good question and deserves answers, in fact it is one of the best posts in this thread.
First child brides like it or not are still taking place among some migrants in this country.
And are an Aboriginal way of life from their history, ours too.
I think we are well past that, know women and girls are not property of men.
First contact in child welfare should be from trained intervention at schools hospitals and such.
From CJ Morgans thread sex and moral education for every child at school, just say no, the slogan and report report the answer.
Take children out of dangerous homes every time, educate and monitor parents before returning them and after.
Longer prison terms for all child sex offenders and no privacy on release.
People like the headline maker should live a in some type of enclosed village for their protection and others, some form of punishment as to be for life.
Rules even education ,so judges and magistrates have to be mainstream and Have to invoke minimum sentences, we have far too many idiots on the bench.
That is a start what are your ideas?

Belly, I reckon the rate of child sexual abuse is probably as low as we can reasonably expect, especially given the rate of family breakdown.

Now, before the usual nitwits jump in with "anti hates children", that doesn't mean we should not punish those who are found to have transgressed. It means that there is in any population a certain number of people who are unable to control themselves in all sorts of situations, especially when using alcohol or other drugs. Then there are the rare psycopaths or sociopaths like the fellow who prompted this thread.

The threat of punishment is probably not a deterrent to either of those groups, but it no doubt stops any number of 20somethings from trying to pick up grade 8, 9 or 10 girls, even if it doesn't stop the girls from trying to pick up a 20something. It might even stop some men from interfering with their gf's 12 year old daughters, but if they get drunk or take a stack of eccies that deterrent is greatly weakened.

In order to prevent children being sexually abused, we would need to step in before it occurred, as well as detecting instances as soon as they happened. I can't see any way we can do that and retain the rest of the values that make our society a great thing to be part of, such as privacy, freedom to associate, due process of law, etc.

Tragically, but unavoidably, we may just have to live with what we've got and help the victims pick up the pieces when they come forward.

The only alternative is to become a much less free society, including losing any right to live behind closed doors.

The freedoms adults seem to enjoy here are the freedoms to do what they want to kids behind closed doors.

So parents can have their “behind closed door” (no idea why you want it) right Anti and we can hope society becomes more observant.

I don’t want the foster kids behind any doors. As state wards the people of the state should know what it going on with them. If the mens club believe their own stats they would not want a child with two non-biological parents, unseen and unheard.

So now you're implying I'm a paedophile, Julie. A new low, even for the OLO twitterati.

I like privacy. I'm not happy living in a goldfish bowl. You may well be, should I call you an exhibitionist? Do you and hubby just get it on in the lounge room when you feel like it? I bet it's educational for the kids...

Very many people prefer to maintain their own space for reasons other than nefarious ones. We're only somewhat social. sometimes people use that privacy to do bad things, but I think the right of the vast majority of people(who don't do anything wrong) to have their privacy outweighs what could be gained by removing it.

Besides, how could it be done? The sheer scale is simply impossible, although technological advances make it a dead cert that it will become feasible eventually.

TPP:"I would add at least three zeros to that figure"

Abracadabra, alakazaam, a figure appeared from thin air. The crowd were impressed - it was much more tasteful than the way they were usually produced...

20,000 in WA from a population of about 500,000 under 16. translated Australia-wide, that would mean over 200,000 children being sexually abused each and every year. Where are they? Such an enormous group must have enormous political power, so why do we keep hearing about how politicians aren't interested? 1 in every classroom? 30 at my kids' primary school?

I don't know what the true figure is, but I'd be surprised if the rate of sexual abuse of children, especially abuse by adults, rather than "assaults" by 6 year-olds, is above 1% in the general community, probably much less.

Some ethnic communities, especially some indigenous, have much higher rates and have lost a great deal of their privacy as a result. Is there any evidence to suggest this has reduced the rate of abuse?

Belly,
IT is sad but how bloody RIGHT you were yesterday in your post
Only today on Yahoo7 news so I would say it is 7 news Roman Polanski
Admits to having sex in 1977 with a 13 year old while he would have been 46-47 years old and world governments are calling for a Presidential Pardon saying how ridiculous it is to charge him
Other words bugger the child
What hope has any one got to stop this shite in society
Not even 24 hours from your last post
Have a good life from Dave