Childcare worker Ben Munroe was worried as soon as he read the news alert on his phone — a male childcare worker charged with more than 70 offences — his own career might be at risk.
He didn’t want to even get out of bed and go to work, hyper-aware of any judgement of his gender.
“A week ago I wasn’t thinking in terms of male and female, I was just thinking I’m an educator here doing my job like everybody else.”
But that’s now changed.
The 27-year-old, who has been working in the childcare sector in Melbourne’s inner east for two years, said the gravity of the charges against the accused, a similar aged man from a similar background, has taken a toll.
“Across every centre in Melbourne, there will be parents saying, ‘I don’t want men changing my child’s nappies’. I’m not going to go against that … if that’s what they need to feel safe.”
He said about a third of parents had reached out to show support to him personally, acknowledging he was “one of the good ones,” but that hasn’t happened across the board.
“A third of parents were indifferent, but then another third I felt new tension that didn’t exist previously.
“They had this sort of look in their eyes like they had become distrustful, I felt that judgement.“
Joshua Dale Brown was arrested and charged this week with more than 70 offences including child sexual abuse, producing abuse material and contaminating food with bodily fluids.
The charges involve eight children, aged five months to two years, at a Point Cook Centre between 2022 and 2023.
The latest available Australian crime statistics show that out of those charged with a child sex offence in 2022 to 2023, 91 per cent were male.
Mr Munroe said it had been a tough week for everyone working in childcare, but male educators in particular.
“I’m concerned the conversation is quickly switching to ‘men are the problem’ which makes male educators feel even more isolated.“
And some advocates have said exactly that and called for men to be banned from the profession.
Better protections needed
Delanie Woodlock, a senior research fellow at the UNSW and deputy director of Child Light, a global child safety initiative, said it’s not that simple.
Delanie Woodlock is a senior research fellow at the UNSW and deputy director of Child Light, a research group that focuses on child sexual abuse. (Supplied)
She said centres needed to be designed to make this sort of abuse impossible without detection.
“What we’re seeing through the major case studies that we’ve been looking at is that these abuses were only detected through external investigations,” she said.
“That usually happened through child sexual abuse material and sharing that online and it was traced backwards to the centre.”
She said there was no walking back from the statistics that the majority of sexual abuse that happens in childcare revolves around male “professional perpetrators”.
“They’re attracted to this work because it gives them sexual access to infants and children,” she said.
According to a 2024 workforce census, male educators make up just 3 per cent of the early childhood sector.
She points to research that shows perpetrators target pre-verbal children and go undetected due to failed internal safeguards.
“Abusers have actually picked different workplaces if they have lax CCTV coverage or they can use their mobile phones.”
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Her research includes examinations of six childcare serial sexual assault cases, including Australian cases, that highlight other systemic failures, including not enough scrutiny of complaints against men.
In one, perpetrator Shannon McCoole was promoted despite a female colleague’s complaint. The colleague who raised concerns was called a “f***ing bitch” and accused of being jealous after McCool received a promotion.
In the second instance, a female colleague of perpetrator Ashley Griffiths was arrested and charged for exposing information about Griffiths to the media.
Dr Woodlock said these cases illustrate how concerns raised about male perpetrators were dismissed or penalised due to fears of appearing discriminatory, rather than actually prioritising child protection.
She stressed the need for a 100 per cent preventable system, implemented through boosting background checks, strict professional boundaries including banning educators from working as babysitters, the “four eyes policy” in nappy changing, and design changes like CCTV, to deter offenders.
In response to the allegations against Joshua Brown, the federal government announced this week a series of reforms aimed at enhancing child safety in early childhood education and care services.
The legislation is due to be introduced later this month and aims to empower federal officers to conduct “spot checks” of childcare centres without prior warrants.
State arrangements are set to be strengthened too.
Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements.
Victoria, Queensland, and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening their regimes, and federal minister Jason Clare confirmed plans to strengthen the checks would be discussed at a meeting of state and federal attorneys-general in August.
Mr Munroe said he’s worried about other men in the field, especially those at high school thinking about a career in childcare, part-way through training, or those working in less supported centres.
He is now looking at ways to support the “many good male educators out there”.
“I’m thinking about … maybe opening a support group for male educators, just to let them know that there are a lot of really good ones out there.”
