Jackie Bateman

While public awareness of child sexual abuse often focuses on abuse perpetrated by adults, findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study indicate that harmful sexual behaviour by children and young people is the most common form of CSA for young Australians, with more than 50% of victim-survivors experienced sexual harm inflicted by another young person.

Responding to and preventing harmful sexual behaviour by children and young people requires more than awareness-it demands genuine collaboration with young people and strong partnerships across service systems. What's ok? Australia, building on learning from Stop It Now! Australia, is a new anonymous website and helpline for young people concerned about their own or someone else's sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children. The program is grounded in co-design, working alongside young people to ensure the service is relevant, accessible, and reflective of their lived realities, while also supporting parents, carers, and professionals with clear, evidence-informed guidance to prevent harmful sexual behaviour.

This presentation focuses on the process underpinning the development of What's ok? Australia, highlighting how engagement with young people has shaped the platform's tone, functionality, and content. It also explores how collaboration across the sector has been pivotal to the initiative's success, including partnerships with academics, direct services, victim-survivors, law enforcement, education, and many more.

The presentation highlights the critical role of partnership in designing innovative approaches that are developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed, and responsive to the diverse contexts in which young people live. Drawing on insights from the design and pilot phases, it will examine how collaboration has shaped key elements of the initiative, including content development, referral pathways, and service user engagement. We will share learnings from the service development, and how stakeholders, including law enforcement, can utilise What's ok? Australia to assist in preventing harmful sexual behaviours by young people.