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The Dads and The Docs – podcast tackles child abuse

Australian Catholic University Professor Daryl Higgins appeared on a special episode of popular parenting podcast to talk about how to safeguard our kids from child sexual abuse. 

Parenting is a hard job and with the glut of information available it can be difficult to know what you're doing is right, especially for new parents.

Gogglebox favourites Adam Densten and Matty Fahd have teamed up to create The Dads and The Docs podcast, to equip new parents with all the knowledge and support during the whirlwind first three months of parenthood. Sharing personal experiences, professional advice as well as tips and tricks they wish they had possessed before becoming dads.

Australian Catholic University Professor Daryl Higgins appeared on this week’s special episode to talk about how to safeguard our kids from child sexual abuse. 

The episode was produced in partnership with the National Office of Child Safety and part of the One Talk at a Time campaign, Australia’s first national awareness raising campaign aimed at preventing child sexual abuse.

It encourages adults with children and young people in their lives to learn about the issue and have ongoing, proactive, preventative conversations with children, young people and other adults.

Around 1 in 4 Australian adults have experienced child sexual abuse and Professor Higgins, the Director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies, told Adam that talking about child abuse can make people uncomfortable, which is why it’s important to encourage men and dads to have these conversations.

“Having conversations where we speak directly to dads to encourage them, but to also explain why it is that they are an important part of the process,” he said.

“But also, how. Because sometimes it seems too big a job, we’re too afraid, we often have not experienced the same prevention messages when we were growing up, and so it’s about undoing the silence and the shame and the lack of language. 

“We have to … learn a new way of being a dad or being a man in this world so that having these kinds of conversations is not uncomfortable, but it is a natural part of conversations with young people in our lives."

The podcast episode was wide-ranging, and Professor Higgins talked about how he ended up working in the space and about his own experiences as a father and grandfather.

“It’s not about getting it right and getting it perfect, it's just about being yourself and being vulnerable,” he said.

“It’s about creating that space where [young people] know that it's okay to put in words how they're feeling, what they might be concerned about.”

Listen to the podcast here

Find out more about the One Talk at a Time campaign here

Media Contact: Conor Burke, 0448 491 059 conor.burke@acu.edu.au