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A landmark national ad campaign aimed at encouraging adults to have sensitive conversations with young people about child sexual abuse will hit TV screens and social media from Sunday night, in what advocates say is a critical step in raising awareness.<\/p>\n
The \u2018One Talk at a Time\u2019 campaign features three scenarios of adults gently raising the topic with children, as a way of proactively identifying behaviours such as unwanted touching, inappropriate talk or solicitation of photos as something that is not OK, even if it comes from family or friends.<\/p>\n
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A still from one of the videos in the new national ad campaign to prevent child sexual abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n The federal government is spending $22.4 million on the initiative, which it says is the first national campaign of its kind aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. It will run in mainstream media and online platforms until mid-2024.<\/p>\n Child safety campaigner Bruce Morcombe, who with wife Denise established the Daniel Morcombe Foundation after their son was abducted and murdered in 2003, said the move was a \u201ctremendous step forward\u201d in developing national policy to protect children.<\/p>\n \u201cDenise and I have, for the best part of two decades as child safety advocates, been pushing state-by-state and federally the message that we need national standards \u2013 key messaging that is standardised right across the country. This is the first step forward in allowing that to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The ads feature a combination of actors and animation, with the animation kicking in at the complex point of the discussion, such as when an older brother tells his younger sibling: \u201cYou know nobody should ever ask you to send pictures of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Longtime child protection advocate Hetty Johnston said the campaign was powerful and poignant, likening the messaging to a \u201csledgehammer covered in a feather duster\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to have this conversation and yet it\u2019s such a difficult message to get across without triggering and upsetting people. I think they\u2019ve found the line just exquisitely,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is saying to all our survivors everywhere, we should have listened to you, and we need to listen now.\u201d<\/p>\n Bravehearts chief executive Alison Geale said the prevention of sexual harm was something that should be introduced into discussions with children from an early age.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still an element of shame and stigma attached [to child sexual abuse] and an element of this won\u2019t happen in my family, or this happens in other families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Morcombes and Bravehearts are part of an advisory group of advocates and experts, coordinated by National Office of Child Safety and co-chaired by Johnston, who was consulted during the development of the campaign.<\/p>\n Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the campaign was underpinned by significant research and testing and delivered on measures in the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.<\/p>\n \u201cI am particularly proud this campaign has received support from victims and survivors,
their advocates and child safety experts, many of whom worked with the Australian government to inform the development of the campaign,\u201d Dreyfus said.<\/p>\n