By Bridget Sheehan
Please note this article contains reference to child abuse.
Community sport can play an endlessly positive role in children’s lives.
Getting to training, playing games in cold weather – it asks for discipline and commitment and serves back even more: joy, connection, new friends, strength, skills, passion.
It can be magic, the highlight of the week.
However, it can also be a site of harm.
Victoria University safe sport researcher Associate Professor Mary Woessner and safe sport research team including Dr Aurélie Pankowiak, Associate Professor Fiona MacLachlan and Professor Alex Parker are working on a range of projects to change this reality and improve both the prevention of, and response to, abuse in sport.
“For too many children, organised sport has been a place where they have experienced abuse. Unfortunately, we are seeing a pattern where children feel afraid to disclose their experiences, and adults often fail to recognise the abuse for what it is,” Associate Professor Woessner explains.
In 2022, the team surveyed 850 adults who had participated in community sport as children. The research showed more than 80% of those surveyed had experienced at least one type of abuse (psychological, physical, sexual abuse or neglect) when playing youth community sport in Australia.
“Many of these behaviours are normalised: yelling or belittling framed as motivation, punitive training or playing through injury, sexualised ‘banter’, and excluding or intimidating players to control their behaviour.”
“And we found that of those who experienced abuse, it was rare for them to speak up. For those who did, they reported being ignored and not believed,” says Associate Professor Woessner.
The team have since collaborated on a range of initiatives to understand how this can be changed including a research collaboration with a committee of adults with lived experience of child abuse in sport.
Most adults who work in children’s sport are volunteers, so they play a crucial role in keeping children safe. The research team recently surveyed 200 people volunteering in children’s sport, to understand their capacity to respond effectively to children when they come forward with an experience of abuse.
“Ninety eight percent of people surveyed agreed that reporting child abuse in sport is important. But there was a lot less people that were confident in their ability to recognise and respond to it,” explains Dr Aurélie Pankowiak, VicHealth Early Career Research Fellow.
Only 40 percent believed current reporting systems were effective and one in five volunteers feared repercussions from their club if they raised concerns of child abuse.
Corrosive, dangerous myths also exist about children lying about abuse. In fact, 20 percent of respondents said they believe children can lie about abuse.
“We know that this is extremely rare, evidence shows this, but these damaging myths persist,” explains Associate Professor Woessner.
She says that systemic change is needed in key areas to stop this ongoing harm.
“As well as education and training, we need broader cultural change and stronger, more accessible systems that support action. Volunteers’ ability to respond is shaped by the structures and expectations around them.”
“Collective action is needed across organisations and communities to ensure that when children speak, they are heard, believed, and supported.”
If you’re involved in children’s community sport in any way here’s what you can do to keep children safe.
1. Share information
Take time to familiarise yourself with your club’s child safeguarding policies and make sure they are visible and accessible to others, including clear contact details for reporting concerns.
2. Build your own capacity
Safeguarding education and training can make you feel more confident in recognising and responding to concerns. The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse also has a helpful resource for how to respond to a disclosure.
3. Support safe practices within your club
If you are in a volunteer or safeguarding role, regularly share information with others, such as sending updates or reminders about policies, expectations, and available support. Check out some of the policy/template resources at Play by the Rules
4. Start conversations
Create an environment where it feels normal to check in with children and their families, ask how they are doing, and invite feedback about how the club can do better.
If you, or someone you know, has been impacted by or is concerned about a child’s safety, there are services and resources available to help at childsafety.gov.au/get-support.
Options to report are also outlined at vic.gov.au/social-services-regulator.
This establishment and engagement with a committee of people with lived experience of abuse in sport was supported by funding from the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse.
