I saw this item this morning http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/public-called-on-to-prevent-child-abuse/story-e6frfku0-1225912592784

Mow,I'm not going to make a comment on the alleged survey, whicj I have no way of evaluating, but I do take hreat exception to the following information: "National Child Protection Week 2010, which begins this Sunday on Father's Day."

Why are good fathers to be forced to fend off the association with paedophiles on what is supposed to be a day celebrating fatherhood?

In my view, this is an ill-considered campaign by a few publicity-seekers designed to associate fatherhood with child abuse.

I will be writing to the board of NAPCAN, the organisation responsible to express my deep concern at this hijacking of the one day of the year solely designed to recognise fathers.

I will gladly withdraw my complaint if NAPCAN organises a similar campaign starting on Mother's Day. After all, the evidence is that mothers, not fathers are responsible for the majority of abuse and neglect suffered by children.

I won't hold my breath, the Board of NAPCAN is nearly all women...

If these statistics are correct it is a sad state of affairs. I would have thought the level of reporting to be much higher but before being able to say for sure it would be interesting to know more about the respondent group (22,000 people according to the NAPCAN website).

Personally I agree that such a campaign should not be run in conjunction with Father's Day which is a day that the role of fathers is celebrated.

Perhaps NAPCAN's strategy was to focus attention on the fact that it is father's (in the traditional protector role) who can assist in increasing the levels of awareness about reporting abuse. It may have been done with this association rather than tainting good men by association.

However such an approach is ill-advised. A sexual abuse campaign deserves to be given a time slot in its own right as well as, equally important, honouring of the role of father's on Father's Day without any other agenda.

Hmm disturbing statistics.

Launching this campaign on Father's Day does tend to imply that the onus is all of us, but especially on all parents and sterotypically on fathers who are MEN. Using Father's Day is a bit of a double-edged sword. We want people to sit up and take notice and to take responsibility for the protection of all children against child abuse. Because of its visibility, making the campaign on Father's Day is a good vehicle for drawing attention to this. But it is a value loaded vehicle which does make it completely unfair on all the wonderful, caring fathers and turns Father's Day into something ugly. Have they thought about how turning Father's Day into a vehicle for child abuse awareness could impact on the children on Father's Day? Messy, ugly and hurtful will be the subliminal message to children. Can you imagine this being done on Mother's Day? There would be an outcry, and rightly so.

Pelican:"It may have been done with this association"

I did have a think about that but if that is the case, it is an incredibly ham-fisted effort, since there's no mention of that anywhere and there is a clear association between this event and Father's Day.

The Ombudsman was scathing about the stereotyping of fathers by the CSA. I suggest tthat this is simply another example of the same type of behaviour and is unacceptable.

Your point about the protective effect of fathers is wellmade, though. The evidence shows that when a father is involved in his children's life after separation there is a clear reduction in their risk of being victims of abuse or neglect. Perhaps NAPCAN can take notice of that and make the point overt, thereby celebrating good fathers instead of tarring us all with the same brush as "abusers".

Perhaps they were associating fathers with preventing abuse?

Public reaction to this body would be counterproductive. By all means get many people writing very short, polite, calm reasoning letters to influential people including politicians.

The most profitable thing to do would be to make lemonade from the lemons. You and Pelican have already found a theme which could resonate will all if it does not at the same time play the victim card or trash women.

From previous Father's Days it would be nothing short of remarkable if the federal government made a fuss of it. Maybe if there is a change of government there might be, it is sad to say. Previous Ministers like The Hon Nicola Roxon MP, had difficulty even acknowledging a health week for men. Did she ever say anything about it? They wonder why they lost support and blame the ETS.