SAFE CHURCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
22 May 2023
The Safe Church Advisory Committee (“SCAC”) (and the CRCA) are committed to demonstrate our care and respect for every child and vulnerable person by taking all possible steps to protect them from abuse of every kind.
It is in this context that we considered passing on some of the important points raised by a recent press release from the Australian Federal Police (‘AFP”) entitled “Online safety reminder as AFP reveals extent of young children posting sexually explicit content.”
Some of the points made in the AFP press release included the following:
- the AFP led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) is urging parents to supervise children online and discuss online safety, revealing for the first time the volume of sexually explicit content produced and posted online by children with no adult criminality involved.
- ACCCE receives on average, five to ten reports EVERY WEEK about children as young as five who had filmed or photographed themselves naked, sometimes displaying sexually explicit behaviour, and posting the content online, without adult criminality or involvement. These reports of uploaded videos or images to social media platforms increase by up to 20 per cent after school holidays, when children had spent more time online.
- Often, this occurs by accident and done from a parent’s phone or computer left unattended as reported by the AFP child protection investigators who conduct welfare checks on families about photos or videos showing a child naked or displaying sexually explicit behaviour. These instances are flagged by social media platforms and reported. In a lot of these cases, parents are not aware what their child has done, the only warning may be a social media account being shut down.
- It is important that parents lock shared devices and supervise their children while they are online as images taken and shares unintentionally can and do reach the hands of sex offenders who often visit popular social media platforms looking for self-produced content and share it with other offenders or may even try to contact the child to groom them to create even more extreme content.
- Please remind children about what content is appropriate to share online, and to ALWAYS seek help from a trusted adult if something makes them feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
- Parents, caregivers and the community are the first line of defence when it comes to protecting children and supervision is critical to prevent an incident and ensures immediate action if their child needs help.
- the press release refers to the following resources for families and children relating to internet safety: ThinkUKnow.org.au/resources and ACCCE’s recently launched children’s book “Jack Changes the Game” available at www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers. According to the AFP press release, the e-book is for five- to eight-year-olds and comes with learning activities to help reinforce safety messages.
SCAC exists to assist our churches protect and care for the young and vulnerable in our church. Our committee is ready to assist churches with any issues they may have in this regard.
Kindest Regards
John Van Dijk
National ChildSafe Administrator
E:
P: 0419 330 003
SAFE CHURCH UNIT FACILITATOR
The Synod of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia is committed to facilitating the safety of all children and vulnerable people in their congregations and other activities conducted on its behalf.
At the Synod in May 2022, the Safe Church Unit was approved, including the appointment of a Safe Church Facilitator. We thank God for His provision are delighted to announce that Daniele Donnini and team through his company Align TSC have been appointed in this role. Daniele started in the role in January 2023.
Daniele and the Align TSC team come with outstanding qualifications and a lot of experience in Safeguarding. Daniele has experience working with vulnerable children and families, delivering services to vulnerable people in both state government and NGOs. Daniele has extensive experience in senior management, program delivery, policy development and emergency services, with contextual safeguarding experience within organizations and faith communities. Most recently Daniele has been the National Director of Safeguarding and Improvement for the Catholic Church in Australia, where for the last several years he led the Catholic Church’s National Safeguarding approaches. Daniele and the Align TSC team have formal qualifications which underpin their extensive experience, in the areas of Community Services; Management; Education (Specializing in Safeguarding); Counseling, Clinical support, Supervision, Divinity and Research Methodologies.
Daniele and the Align TSC team may be contacted via email at
More information about the Safe Church Unit is available in the SCU Mandate.
Here is a link: https://safechurchcrca.org.au/safe-church-documents/36-scu-mandate-v1/viewdocument/36
With the appointment of Daniele and his team, John Van Dijk’s role as Interim Safe Church Facilitator comes to an end. We thank John for the development of the SCU and the work in recent months. John will now concentrate on his role as National ChildSafe Administrator and as vice-chairman of the Safe Church Advisory Committee.
We would also like to take the opportunity to thank Rev Dr Leo Douma for his excellent and lengthy leadership of the Safe Church Advisory Committee (previously known as NSACC). Due to ill health Leo resigned as chairman and at the Committee meeting last week, Peter Abetz was elected chairman.
Peter Abetz
Chairman SCAC
The Synod of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia met in 2022. One of the most difficult issues we addressed was the occurrence of child sexual abuse within our churches. With great sorrow we acknowledge that this has occurred, and we voted unanimously to issue an apology.
ROLE DESCRIPTION OF SAFE CHURCH REPRESENTATIVES
The responsibilities of Safe Church representatives are as follows:
- Ensure the Safe Church Policy and Safe Church Unit Contact Details Poster is displayed prominently in their congregation/organisation building/s
- Be available for members of the congregation who want to disclose abuse (provide a listening ear)
- Keep records of all people in their congregation/organisation who work with children and who have Working With Children Checks and maintain these in SMO (Safety Management Online)
- Ensure the above records are kept up to date (usually performed by the ChildSafe Coordinator)
- Ensure that when a person indicates that they wish to commence in ministry with children that they undergo the Volunteer Approval Process, as outlined on this website. This includes ensuring the required forms are completed and conducting and documenting the referee checks
- Ensure that when a person transfers from one church to another and wishes to commence working with children in the new church that the details are transferred to their new church
- Promote and attend Safe Church (Team Member) Training
- Be responsible for completing the Safe Church Healthcheck and forwarding this document (keeping a copy for their own records) to the SCU
Safe Church Introduction
Safe Church was introduced and approved at Synod 2022.
To provide all churches with an overview and suggestions why the CRCA needs Safe Church - John Van Dijk shared a presentation on 17 September 2020. This presentation introduces some of the legal challenges facing all churches. The presentation also provides an overview of the 10 Child Safe Standards that were accepted and endorsed by COAG in February 2019. To assist all churches with the implementation of the 10 Child Safe Standards, the Safe Church Health Check was developed. An explanation how to use the Health Check is included in the presentation.
To view the presentation - please click here. You may have to turn up the sound a little. You can fast forward or skip the first 6 minutes of the presentation. The poll introduced at the start was available on the day of the presentation only. The results of the poll are included in the presentation.