Why men should not work in childcare

The alleged abuse of children at Melbourne childcare centres has made one thing crystal clear: It’s not a place for men.

COMMENT

I’m sympathetic to the good men in childcare. I really am. I’ve seen their work first hand. But they might need to be collateral damage here.

Aussie children — those so small they can’t yet talk, let alone advocate for themselves — are being put at risk because we’re too afraid to offend some men.

I am aware that this is an emotional subject. I don’t know another parent who read the news this week about the alleged abuse of children in Melbourne childcare centres and didn’t have that sinking feeling in their stomach.

The details, still emerging, are truly sickening. But I am not making an emotional argument. Mine is borne out in facts.

Most people don’t know that between 2 and 4 per cent of those who choose childcare as their occupation in Australia are men.

Many also would not know that the staggeringly overwhelming majority of sexual offences perpetrated against children in non-school educational premises is carried out by men.

In NSW, for example, there were 142 horrific, unthinkable acts against our most vulnerable children in the year to March 2025.

Do you know how many of those offenders were not men? Just two.

A image of the Melbourne alleged sex abuser Joshua Brown. Picture Supplied.

It makes sense given what we know about men being responsible for the vast majority of sexual offences carried out against children.

A study published by the Australian Institute of Criminology shows that men account for 98.3 per cent of child sex offenders in this country.

“Men sexually abuse children far more frequently than do women and some child sex offenders go to great lengths to have access to large numbers of children to abuse and in some cases even choose their employment based on this,” the study reads.

“It is clear that although women have far more opportunities than men to abuse children — as primary carers of children in the home and in child-centred occupations such as childcare and teaching — these opportunities are rarely acted on.”

Offences against children are the most heinous. But offenders are not all equal. In childcare settings, particularly under the broken system that exists in Australia, offenders have the opportunity to abuse far greater numbers of children than in the home.

The AIC study showed that “men who molested out of home female children averaged 20 victims” and “men who molested out of home male children were even more active . . . averaging 150 victims each”.

Joshua Brown, 26, worked across 20 childcare centres around Melbourne before he was charged with more than 70 offences.

The Point Cook man was arrested and charged after police allegedly discovered child abuse material.

He is accused of sexual penetration of a child under 12, sex assault of a child under 16 and production of child abuse material.

Eight alleged victims were from the Creative Gardens Early Learning Centre in Point Cook where he worked between 2022 and 2023. He remains before the courts, and has not entered any pleas.

As news.com.au reported exclusively on Wednesday, he is also accused of contaminating the food of the children in his care with “bodily fluids”.

He will appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on September 15.

The alleged crimes have sent a shockwave across the country and forced Victoria to undertake an urgent review of the childcare sector.

Premier Jacinta Allan said Victoria would build its own register for childcare workers and institute a ban on childcare workers bringing phones to work from September 26.

If a provider does not sign up, they face fines of up to $50,000.

Joshua Brown worked at 20 childcare centres across Melbourne.

It is cold comfort for the horrified families of 1200 children who were told their tiny children should be tested for sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of Brown’s arrest.

The current checks and balances — including the the Working with Children Check — have proven ineffective in the past.

A study in the Journal of Sexual Aggression in 2004 found that 15 per cent of professional perpetrators of sexual abuse against children — that is those who carried out the offending at work — “chose their occupation (eg clergy, teaching, childcare) exclusively so they could sexually abuse children”.

There are good men in childcare. But we cannot ignore the reality that evil men will target the profession as long as they are allowed to slip through the cracks.

Our children are too precious to take chances with their safety. And don’t get me started on sleepovers.

Originally published as Why men should not work in childcare