Sex abuse survivor behind tech invention to keep kids safe

The sexual abuse Luke Benson faced as a boarder at Geelong Grammar in the 1980s has inspired him to develop a technology platform to help keep kids safe.

Luke Benson has created an app that checks the validity of Working With Children checks to help keep kids safe. Picture: Ellen Smith

A survivor of child sexual abuse by a Geelong Grammar boarding school house tutor is behind a new technology platform to keep kids safe by monitoring the validity of Working With Children Checks.

Start-up business Duty of Care grew out of the personal experience of Luke Benson, who gave evidence to the 2015 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, from his time at the private school from Year 7 in the late 1980s.

Mr Benson told the commission that the school in which his parents entrusted him as a boarder had failed in its duty of care to keep him safe.

He said the “perpetrators of the abuse used positions of authority and trust to circumvent the systems that should have kept him and other children safe”.

“As a young boy at boarding school, I endured a period of sustained sexual abuse by a boarding house tutor. Almost 30 years later, at the royal commission, I gave evidence about that experience, the ongoing impact, and I finally learnt the truth about the many failures in the school’s systems that let me and my friends down so badly,” he said.

From his distress he was determined to find a better way to protect young vulnerable people.

Mr Benson’s employer Blue Bike Solutions, an IT company, has backed Duty of Care as a side project after he took the concept to them as a passion project.

Mr Benson said he had no commercial interest in the business but hopes it will make a difference.

Duty of Care chief executive officer Stewart Carter said in many cases organisations don’t have firm and enforced systems to check if staff, volunteers and coaches checks are valid.

“This is potentially one of the most dangerous, yet the most neglected areas for many organisations who work with children,” he said.

A Working with Children Check, issued to volunteers and employees dealing with children, is valid for five years but if it is revoked over that period often the school or organisation in which the person is employed or volunteering does not know.

Duty of Care will notify organisations when a WWC Check is about to expire or has been revoked and promises to streamline the management and double handling of files.

Geelong Grammar.

Most organisations only verify someone’s WWC Check when they join the organisation and then when the check expires up to five years later. This means that someone can have their

WWC Check revoked and continue to have daily contact with children for years before their workplace finds out.

According to the Victorian Department of Justice, more than 2.6 million WWCC accreditations have been issued since the scheme was started in 2006 with more than 4000 negative notices, preventing holders from working with children. A Justice Department spokeswoman said not breakdown on the reasons for revocation were available but they could be due to a crime, the check lapsing, or failure to complete an application.

Earlier this week, the State Government said it would introduce new laws to tighten rights of appeal. The new laws would ensure anyone found guilty of a catergory A offence, such as murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape, would not be able to appeal a refusal to be issued with a WWCC.

In the wake of the royal commission, amendments in 2017 have seen the scope of the checks widened. The definition of “direct contact” includes

oral, written or electronic communication in addition to face-to-face

and physical contact.

In 2017-18, the WWC Check Unit processed 458,114 applications, an increase of about 43 per cent on the number lodged in 2016-17.

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“While registered teachers are exempt from WWC Checks because they are subject to extensive criminal history screening and weekly monitoring by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, there are many other who are working with children in different capacities that fall through the cracks,” Mr Carter said.

“This is potentially one of the most dangerous, yet the most neglected area for many organisations who work with children.”

The royal commission also recommended that organisations keep records for 45 years.

Duty of Care is designed to be affordable and small registered charities and not for profits with an annual turnover of less than $250,000 will be get it free.

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