Standard 9 – Safe physical and online environments

Standard 9

Voice Over: Standard 9 – Safe physical and online environments.

Displayed on screen: (Standard 9 - Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.)

Jacinda de Witts, Deputy Secretary, Regulation, Risk, Integrity and Legal Division speaking to camera: Safe environments play a significant role in keeping children safe and reducing opportunities for abuse and harm, and the new Standards have extended this requirement to include safety in the online space. Your organisation needs to consider how it will assess, understand, and reduce risks to children who access your physical environments and shared spaces, , and also how services delivered in an online environment, including telehealth, maintain safety and reduce opportunities for harm when children and young people are engaging with those services.

Voice Over (and displayed on screen): To comply with Standard 9 your organisation must meet the following four minimum requirements: 

• Staff and volunteers identify and mitigate risks in the online and physical environments without compromising a child’s right to privacy, access to information, social connections and learning opportunities.
• The online environment is used in accordance with the organisation’s Code of Conduct and Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and practices.
• Risk management plans consider risks posed by the organisational setting, activities and the physical environment.
• Organisations that contract facilities and services from third parties have procurement policies that ensure the safety of children and young people.

Jacinda de Witts, Deputy Secretary, Regulation, Risk, Integrity and Legal Division speaking to camera: To know if your organisation is meeting Standard 9, ask yourself the following questions:

• How do you assess and manage child safety risks in the organisation?
• What considerations does your organisation give to ensuring its online environments, including telehealth, are safe for children?
• How do you ensure contractors and third-parties providing services in your organisation undertake their child safety responsibilities?
• And how do you balance a child’s right to privacy with the need to provide safe health and wellbeing services?

Voice Over (and displayed on screen): For more information on Child Safe Standards visit the departments website.