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What is child sexual abuse?
Content note: This page talks about childhood sexual abuse and its impacts. It is not graphic, but it may be distressing. Please take care of yourself while reading, and step away whenever you need to. The Quick Exit bar at the bottom of this site will close this page at any time.
Child sexual abuse is defined in different ways, which can be confusing. Definitions often depend on where they are used, such as criminal law, therapeutic services or child protection, and they can vary between countries. Definitions matter for our shared understanding, but they can also distract from what sits beneath them.
Put simply, child sexual abuse is when people involve children in any type of sexual activity. When we talk about a child, we mean a person aged under 18 years. We recognise and acknowledge the diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities and genders of children.
The forms child sexual abuse can take
Child sexual abuse can involve physical contact, and it can also happen without any physical contact at all. Broadly, it includes:
Contact abuse: any sexual touching of a child, or involving a child in sexual acts.
Non-contact abuse: behaviour that does not involve touching, such as exposing a child to sexual acts or material, making sexual comments to or about a child, or watching a child in a sexual way.
Online abuse: sexual abuse that happens through phones, games, apps or social media, including pressuring or manipulating a child into sexual conversations or activity online.
Image-based abuse: encouraging, pressuring or forcing a child to make or share sexual images or videos, or sharing such material of a child.
All of these are abuse, whether or not there was physical contact, whether it happened once or many times, and whether it happened in person or online. Research shows that online child sexual victimisation is linked to poor mental health outcomes for victim-survivors, so online harm should never be minimised. For detailed definitions, the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse is Australia's leading source of information.
What the law says in Australia
Across Australia, children aged 16 or 17 years old can legally consent to sexual activity with adults, except if the adult is a close family member of the child or in a position of authority, supervision or care in relation to the child. That includes people like a teacher, coach, employer or health practitioner. The law recognises that a child cannot meaningfully consent when there is a serious imbalance of power or trust.
Who perpetrates child sexual abuse?
While many people picture strangers or institutions, child sexual abuse most often happens within families and trusted relationships, by people the child knows. This is part of what makes it so difficult for children to tell anyone: research shows children often fear the consequences of disclosure for themselves or their family. Abuse within trusted relationships can create unique barriers to disclosure and help-seeking, which is why so many survivors carry their experience silently for decades.
It is never the child's fault
Child sexual abuse is never the child's fault. Not at the time, and not decades later. Perpetrators often use manipulation, secrecy and their position of trust or power, which is part of why so many victims and survivors carry misplaced shame. That shame belongs to the person who caused the harm, never the child.
Common questions
Is it still abuse if there was no physical contact?
Yes. Non-contact and online abuse are forms of child sexual abuse, and their impacts are real.
Is it still abuse if the child did not resist or tell anyone?
Yes. Children respond to abuse in many different ways, including freezing, complying or staying silent. None of these responses mean consent, and none of them make the abuse the child's fault. Most survivors take decades to tell anyone, and some never do.
What if a child takes back what they said?
Sometimes children recant or retract what they said about abuse. This is very common and does not mean that children are lying or making up stories. You can read more on our page Responding to a child's disclosure.
How common is it?
More than one quarter (28.5%) of people living in Australia have experienced child sexual abuse. That is more than 1 in 3 girls and almost 1 in 5 boys. You can read more on our page Child sexual abuse in Australia: the facts.
If this page has raised something for you
People can and do recover from child sexual abuse and its impacts. If you want to talk to someone, our Finding support page lists trusted Australian services. If you are supporting someone else, start with Supporting someone.
Sources: Left Write Hook film site Resources (summarised from the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse and Blue Knot Foundation); Australian Child Maltreatment Study; National Centre evidence to action newsletter (familial settings, McPherson 2025; online victimisation, Walsh and Mathews 2026).