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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Children in Care

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Are children in care subject to ongoing targeted sexual exploitation by adults in the community? With your leave, and that of the house, Mr Speaker, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms HILDYARD: In her annual report 2020-21, the Guardian for Children and Young People states that she 'continues to have serious concerns about the prevalence of harmful sexual behaviour between children and young people in care and the targeted sexual exploitation of children and young people in care by adults in the community'.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:37): Obviously, cyber safety and sexual predators are a problem for all young people throughout Australia and throughout the world. If anybody recently saw the recent documentary that was on SBS The Children in the Pictures, it highlighted the cyber rings of people all around the world that have been going on for many years, Shannon McCoole being one of the largest paedophiles who ran a ring of paedophiles throughout the whole world. So this is not a new issue. This is not an issue only for child protection and this is not an issue only in this state. It's an issue around the world.

As I have mentioned recently in this house, but I will mention it again, we have just recently released our Power to Kids program, which is run by the MacKillop Family Services CEO, Robyn Miller, and this is a direct response to the findings of the royal commission into child protection. I will quote from the press release:

We know many of our young people in residential care have experienced horrific family violence, abuse and neglect, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation, and that many carers have not been equipped with the skills to identify and respond effectively.

Power to Kids also focuses on assisting staff to determine when to access key professionals and agencies, such as SA Police, to initiate a broader response.

So we are acting on the issues and, yes, they exist and, as a whole of community, we need to do all we can to keep all of our children and young people safe.

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