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Childcare sexual abuse is mostly committed by men. Failing to recognise that puts children at risk

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Author: 
Woodlock, Delanie & Olejnikova, Lenka
Format: 
Article
Publication Date: 
2 Jul 2025
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Excerpts 

Australians are reeling from the news that a Victorian childcare worker has been charged with more than 70 alleged offences against children, including rape.

As 1,200 children await results to see if they’ve been exposed to infectious diseases, a horror no parent should ever face, and the accused has yet to enter a plea or go through the court process, media commentary has begun to focus on how this case might have implications more broadly for male childcare workers.

Early childhood education is a heavily female-dominated field and some past inquiries into child sexual abuse by male educators have suggested that, in efforts to avoid appearing discriminatory, male workers may be subject to less scrutiny. This dynamic is compounded by efforts for gender balance in childcare, particularly for the perceived benefits of male role models.

Ironically, this fear of seeming biased can create the very conditions that offenders exploit – grooming colleagues, parents and children to commit abuse while hidden in plain sight.

...

In our current research on serial child sexual offenders in childcare in Australia and internationally, we identified six cases involving between seven and 87 confirmed victims under the age of five. Five of the offenders were male and one was female. Together, they sexually abused at least 245 children.

There were striking similarities across these cases. Offenders primarily targeted pre-verbal children, evaded detection for long periods, and were only exposed through external investigations, most often related to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

None of these offenders were uncovered through internal safeguarding systems.

The perpetrators in our case studies were not isolated offenders. They were operating within online communities that normalise and reinforce abusive behaviour and the sharing of child sex abuse material of children who were in their care.

If, as some suggest, male workers are subject to close and sometimes unfair scrutiny, these cases highlight a troubling contradiction. Despite this purported scrutiny, child sexual abuse by male staff can and does occur over extended periods without detection in childcare settings. In fact, evidence from another case suggests staff are often hesitant to raise concerns about male colleagues for fear of being perceived as discriminatory.