JENI O’DOWD: The world increasingly views men with suspicion, but they’re not all monsters

There are millions of parents across Australia raising little boys. Boys who are kind, sensitive and still young enough to cry when the family dog gets sick.

But I wonder: what kind of men will they be allowed to become in a world that increasingly views men with suspicion, simply because they’re male?

After the horrific allegations against 26-year-old Joshua Dale Brown, who’s been charged with 70 offences, including the sexual abuse of babies and toddlers at a childcare centre in Victoria’s Point Cook, there have been calls to remove men from some areas of child care.

This has been amplified after a string of serious male-perpetrated child abuse cases in childcare and after‑school centres in NSW, echoing the pattern in Victoria.

But while most offenders are men, they are not all men.

A UNSW study, released this month, found that among six serial child sex offenders identified in Australian childcare settings, five were male and one was female.

“It is important to highlight that although women comprise a small minority of child sexual abuse offenders, the reluctance to view women, particularly mothers, as potential perpetrators can also contribute to such abuse going undetected,” Delanie Woodlock, a senior research fellow, and Lenka Olejnikovahe, a research officer, both at UNSW Sydney, wrote in an article in The Conversation

And yet, when it comes to who we want changing nappies, we’re now debating whether men should be banned outright.

Child abuse isn’t confined to childcare centres. It happens in schools, churches, youth detention centres, sporting clubs and even in doctors’ offices.

So where do we draw the line? Are we seriously suggesting that men should be banned from all these professions, too?

If we prohibited women from flying planes because they were “too emotional under pressure” the nation would explode. But ban all men from working in childcare centres because some have committed unspeakable crimes? Apparently, that’s worthy of debate.

You could argue women shouldn’t be firefighters because, on average, they’re not strong enough to drag a 90kg man out of a burning building. You could argue women shouldn’t be engineers because men are more spatially adept. You could argue women shouldn’t be in the military because biology shows men are faster and stronger.

Just imagine the outrage.

On the Today Show, Louise Edmonds, a founding member of the Independent Collective of Survivors, said she supported a complete ban on male workers in child care.

“It is extreme,” she said. “But…this is the third case of huge amounts of children being exposed to alleged paedophiles.”

She’s right about the extremity. She’s wrong that extreme now equals necessary.

Karl Stefanovic, never usually the poster boy for restraint, argued men had the right to work in child care.

“So many of them are dedicated. The perception is already hard enough for them… banning men just for being men, that’s the very definition of inequality,” he said.

What we must not do is drive out the few good, decent men brave enough to work in an industry that already treats them like suspects.

What we should do is increase scrutiny across the board with a nationwide review of hiring, reporting and supervision standards, and ensure every childcare centre in Australia is operating under the strictest possible safeguards.

Boys need decent male role models. They shouldn’t grow up thinking most men are predators unfit to work with children.

Research has consistently shown that when boys have positive male figures in their early years, whether it’s a dad, a teacher, or yes, a childcare worker, they develop better emotional regulation, stronger empathy and healthier ideas about masculinity.

Take that away, and we don’t just narrow their world. We reinforce the exact gender stereotypes we claim to be dismantling.

What kind of society tells young boys that, just by being born male, they are viewed as potential predators? That their presence near children is suspect unless closely supervised? That they are biologically riskier and therefore less worthy of trust?

Not long after the Today Show interview, Louise Edmonds shared her own harrowing experience in a Daily Mail article, revealing she was sexually abused between the ages of four and nine.

She said one in four girls and one in six boys are abused before they turn 18. And in more than 90 per cent of cases, it’s not a stranger, it’s someone the child knows. Often, they are someone in a position of care or authority.

Louise also said figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology showed that 97 per cent of child sex offenders were male.

“We need to look at this reality without flinching,” she wrote. “I am not calling for men to be removed from the childcare sector entirely. What I am advocating for is this: moving male carers out of intimate roles and into supervised, communal areas like outdoor play, group reading or learning activities with full transparency.”

Her story deserves respect. But her proposed solution to confine men to monitored, group-only roles is deeply flawed.

When female teachers sexually abuse students — and they do — we don’t call for women to be banned from classrooms.

When a female nurse murders babies, as Lucy Letby did in the UK, we don’t argue that women can’t be trusted in hospitals. We don’t assign them to communal duties only, or suggest they need monitoring during “intimate care”. We rightly hold the individual accountable.

There are evidence-based solutions used around the world to protect children in child care.

Malaysia mandates CCTV in childcare centres and has real-time alerts if a child isn’t checked in.

Luxembourg enforces random inspections. Victoria is now rolling out a raft of reforms, banning personal phones, tightening reporting times and creating a national worker registry. These are serious, systemic changes that don’t rely on knee-jerk gender bans.

What happened in Point Cook and other childcare centres is inexcusable.

But our response has to be measured, rational and fair. Otherwise, we haven’t made children safer. We’ve just made our society meaner, smaller and more afraid.