Institute of Child Protection Studies report

Children and young people's perceptions of safety and institutional responses to their safety concerns

Authors: Tim Moore, Morag McArthur, Jessica Heerde, Steven Roche, Patrick O'Leary

In 2014, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse commissioned the ACU Institute of Child Protection Studies, with colleagues from the Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University, to develop an understanding of how children perceive safety and consider it within institutional contexts.

The study explored:

1. How children and young people conceptualise and perceive safety;
2. Children and young people’s views on what gives rise to these perceptions;
3. Children and young people’s perceptions of safety within institutions;
4. What children and young people consider is already being done to respond to safety issues and risks in institutions;
5. What children and young people consider should be done to respond to safety issues in institutions.

This report is the second of two reports presenting the findings of this study (see Related Resources below to access the first report). It provides an overview of the findings of a national online survey, the Australian Survey of Kids and Young People (ASK-YP), which was completed by 1480 children and young people across Australia. The survey was informed by the findings of focus groups with children and young people, which were presented in the first report, ‘Taking us seriously: Children and young people talk about safety and institutional responses to their safety concerns’. The survey aimed to gauge the extent to which institutions met the safety needs identified by children and young people.

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