Sector's anger builds with calls for answers and action: NSW's latest child abuse

On Friday, 11 July 2025, a Sydney early childhood educator was charged with seven counts of using a child to make horrific content, three were aggravated.

As best as ACA NSW could confirm, this educator was charged in closed court as detectives continue to carry out their investigations for potentially more victims.

This follows other horrifying cases committed in NSW and other Australian states. And again, ACA NSW has begun its own inquiries about this latest child abuse, beginning with the following:

• What were the Quality Ratings (both overall and Quality Area 2 – Children’s Health and Safety) of the service that employed that educator?

• What was the compliance history for that service and that educator (according to the NSW Regulatory Authority and/or the NSW Children’s Guardian)?

• What information did the regulators/authorities have on that service and/or that educator (including the NSW Regulatory Authority, the NSW Children’s Guardian, the Australian Federal Police and/or the NSW Police)?

Alongside ACA National, ACA NSW has supported the banning of personal devices at all early childhood education and care services. That said, we also have officially and publicly raised concerns about how photographic and video content (including published ones) are accessed and shared.

Moreover, with the spectacular trajectory of artificial intelligence, ACA NSW has also (prophetically) raised concerns about how content can be manipulated. The risk for such and other electronic content increases exponentially against cybersecurity threats and potential government requirements to keep such data for at least 45 years.

NOTE: ACA NSW also (prophetically) raised concerns about how images of children can be collected covertly.

All these are sadly no longer new to ACA NSW as we have been persistently raising awareness and advocating for solutions for many, many years. As such, we continue to call for real and effective action, particularly at the local level where ACA NSW continues to urge the NSW Government to:

1. ensure their issuing of services’ Quality Ratings, their assessment and rating process, their compliance regime, their Authorised Officers, their Regulatory Authority and the National Quality Framework are accurate, fit-for-purpose and produce non-subjective results that parents and the public can consistently rely;
   
   

2. extend fair trading laws to allow parents to prosecute the local Regulatory Authority for effectively issuing false and misleading Quality Ratings of services that ultimately could not be relied upon;
   
   

3. introduce new whistleblower protections so as to ensure concerns can be raised without any repercussions or industrial fear (as ACA NSW requested and the Wheeler Report has recommended);
   
   

4. ensure the legal accuracy of the voluminous breaches/non-compliance notices issued by the NSW Regulatory Authority, as well as its utility for regulatory actions to proactively protect children;
   
   

5. use the nine (9) already legislated national laws as well as publicly examine why they have not been consistently used to date;
   
   

6. examine the current zero NSW convictions of Australia's worst paedophile (ie Operation Tenterfield); and
   
   

7. develop and implement effective child safety training for all care workers (ideally as their first and core unit of study) and ensure TAFE and all other Registered Training Organisations guarantee their graduates’ child safety competencies (eg via the Job Ready aspect of Skills NSW where currently only 50% do not have any rating).

For any further information/clarification, please contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.

PUBLISHED: 15 JULY 2025