Violet's Web Program (Child Safeguarding Evaluation Tool)
Violet's Web Program (Safety Audit Evaluation Tool)
Child Protection is a Community Responsibility
Violet’s Web is a comprehensive community based solution to prevent child sexual abuse. The most effective solutions to prevent abuse includes educating children about protective behaviours; educating staff and caregivers to identify grooming behaviours and minimising 1 on 1 interactions between adults and children.
The most effective solutions for preventing the abuse of children with living disability or neurodivergence includes educating children about protective behaviours with innovative teaching approaches; educating staff and caregivers to identify grooming behaviours; minimising 1 on 1 interactions with children and installing safety cameras in child service providers.
What is Violet’s Web?
Violet’s Web Program creates visible community groups to undertake Child Safeguarding Audits on all child service providers including schools, child care centres, hospitals, churches, medical centres, businesses, clubs, organisations and NDIS child service providers. The ‘Web’ is a safety net for children to ensure they are being protected across all service providers they are involved with. If schools and families fail to teach protective behaviours to children, other service providers will deliver the message.
Service Providers are Accountable to the Community
Service providers are accountable to the community in which they operate because they serve and represent the people. Any child service provider should be comfortable with being assessed and critiqued about their child safeguarding policies and procedures, and if they are not transparent, we don’t allow our children to engage with them.
Observe
We want a calm, firm and resilient group presence within every community, observing the people who interact closely with our children. If several people in our communities are discussing body safety and protective behaviours with children, we are increasing their level of safety. ‘Career Predators’ build entire careers around having long term access to multiple children. ‘Neighbourhood Predators’ volunteer within community clubs, organisations and schools.
Child Service Providers are Predatory Playgrounds
Violet’s Web ensures that child service providers are familiar with grooming behaviours. All staff, volunteers and adult clientele should be taught how to recognise grooming behaviours. Groomers infiltrate service providers to abuse children from within. We need to develop a Zero Tolerance policy for voyeuristic behaviour towards children. Australian culture normalises behaviours where young girls, their bodies and clothing choices are sexually critiqued by others. This means that service providers can be dangerous predatory playgrounds where perpetrators have free reign.
Education is Key
Education and communication are the best safeguards to protect children, and studies show that children from as young as three years old can be taught about body autonomy, safe and unsafe touch, safety networks, early-warning signs and recognising and naming their feelings. All children should be aware that they do not keep secrets about their bodies, and they can always tell a trusted adult if they are feeling unsafe, unsure or uncomfortable.
Child Safeguarding Policies DO NOT reflect Australia’s Child Sexual Abuse Epidemic
If a service provider does have a Child Protection Policy, it usually discusses child sexual abuse with reference to “if a child discloses…”, then take these steps. Children don’t just disclose secrets they’ve been keeping for months or years. They require opportunities to disclose due to the threats and intimidation they experience by abusers. For example, in a discussion with a group of children about their right to feel safe and having a Strong NO; you could say, “Sometimes people ask children to keep secrets about their bodies, especially their private parts. They might ask you to keep a secret about yours or their private parts. It is not okay and they’re not supposed to do that. If anybody wants to talk about this, you can come and talk to me or one of your ‘Safe’ People”.
Many children who are abused are brainwashed into thinking that the abuse is a normal part of their life, so they don’t know that it is wrong until someone tells them it is. Due to threats and intimidation, children indirectly give messages to people around them through their behaviour, not by telling them verbally. Parents are not taught to identify signs and symptoms, so they are completely missing any indirect communication from a child. It is imperative that service providers’ Child Safeguarding Policies actively teach children about protective behaviours.
