What is the new legislation?

The Statutes Amendment (Child Sexual Abuse) Act 2021 has been introduced in response to the  Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, to improve child safety, strengthen reporting and better protect victims of child sexual abuse.

This new legislation, which came into effect from 1 June 2022, includes the introduction of two new offences under the Criminal Law Consolidation Act - Failure to report suspected child abuse (section 64) and Failure to protect a child from sexual abuse (section 65).

The new offences take what most people would consider a moral duty to report known or suspected child sexual abuse to police, into a legal obligation, enforced by criminal sanctions.

Who do the laws apply to?

The laws apply to employees, contractors and volunteers of all organisations who operate facilities or provide services to children under their supervision. They also apply to approved foster, kinship, specific child only and family day-care (guardianship) carers, as well as DCP staff and service providers.

How do these laws apply to foster and kinship carers?

Under these laws, carers are legally required to report if they know, or suspect, child sexual abuse by another carer, to SA Police. Carers are also legally required to take steps to protect a child from sexual abuse by another carer, where they are in a position to do so.

Failure to report

A carer must report to the police if they know of, or suspect, that another carer has sexually abused or is likely to sexually abuse a child, while providing out of home care.

Failure to protect

Where a carer knows there is a substantial risk that another carer will sexually abuse a child they must take steps to protect the child from sexual abuse, where they have the power to do so.

How do carers need to report?

Reports should be made directly to SA Police. Carers are also required to report any suspicion of sexual abuse of a child to the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL).

More information

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to speak to your support worker or agency.