Worrying trend as desperate parents hire unvetted babysitters online

Parents are offering overnight accommodation to strangers they met online in exchange for minding their children in a babysitting “free-for-all”.

Children as young as six months are being left with strangers as parents advertise online for babysitters. Picture: iStock

Parents are advertising on-the-spot babysitting jobs to unvetted carers by offering strangers overnight accommodation and quick cash to watch their children.

In what has been described by child protection specialists as some parents taking “various risks”, children as young as six months old are being left with sitters who have not been asked to present qualifications, such as a police check or first aid certificate.

Social media has become a breeding ground for call-outs from mums and dads looking for last-minute nannies, with the unregulated posts attracting dozens of replies from potential carers, including young teens.

Melbourne-based babysitters told the Herald Sun that Facebook was a “free-for-all” where families and nannies could bypass presenting important documents.

Unlike formalised work where teens have to be at least 15 years old to secure a job, there is no minimum age requirement to work as a babysitter.

The Herald Sun has seen scores of Facebook posts and listings on sites such as We Need a Nanny, enticing babysitters they have not yet met or interviewed with their own bed for overnight shifts.

Other offers included attempts to incentivise workers with cash-in-hand payments.

One post read: “Cash payment. Seeking last minute overnight babysitter in Williams Landing tonight. Minimum 12-hour shift. Chosen individual will have queen bedroom with ensuite to sleep (sic)”.

Another said: “Looking for a babysitter one-off today … six months old located in Kensington. Cash payment.”

Commissioner for Children and Young People Liana Buchanan said parents should first look for babysitters from professional providers which are governed by child safety standards to ensure the best care for their children.

“The unfortunate reality is, too often there are still individuals in our community who pose serious risks to children,” she said.

“It feels like extra work (to conduct additional checks) when you’re desperate, but it’s worthwhile.”

Surrey Hills mum Georgia Stryker said she wishes she ran reference checks before she left a 20-year-old babysitter with her two young children for five hours.

“When I got home, I found my youngest in her cot, crying, covered in poo,” Ms Stryker said.

“She had changed my daughter’s nappy but it turned out she actually didn’t know how to change a nappy, so she hadn’t put the nappy on properly.

“She was also boiling hot because she had been overdressed in her cot.”

Ms Stryker then found her three-year-old naked, hungry, thirsty and covered in texta marks.

She said she was left “traumatised” by the experience and recommends parents run multiple checks, especially if there are any “red flags”.

“You need to do those checks. These are our most prized possessions.”

Founder of nanny search website Find a Babysitter, Delia Timms, said parents who bypassed safety checks on social media risked sourcing unreliable and unqualified babysitters.

“Have a phone call, go to an interview, make sure that you’ve seen the other party and you’ve confirmed that they are who they said they are,” she said.

“People just need to go through those steps like they would when they employ someone to do a job.

“You are opening yourself up to various risks by not just going through those basic steps.”

Parents are legally responsible for their children under Commonwealth legislation, so if a chosen babysitter is not suitable then the parents may be held accountable.

If a person aged under 18 is babysitting and something goes wrong, the parents (of the children being babysat) will be held responsible.