我14岁生日那天，我姐姐的两个朋友被发现已死。他们分别是10岁和11岁。两人都有严重残疾，就读于我姐姐——她也有严重残疾——所就读的特殊需求学校。慢慢地，细节浮出水面：他们的父亲策划了一场谋杀自杀，杀死了两个孩子、他的妻子以及他自己。无法想象失去一个孩子遭受暴力是什么样的感受。
The day I turned 14, two of my sister's friends were found dead. They were 10 and 11 years old. Both had significant disabilities and attended the special-needs school my sister with severe disabilities also attends. Slowly, details emerged: their father had planned a murder-suicide, killing both children, his wife and himself It's impossible to imagine what it must be like to lose a child to violence. Children who grow up inside places of abuse are forced to sacrifice themselves in unimaginable ways.
在虐待环境中长大的孩子被迫以无法想象的方式牺牲自己。他们不是在学习阅读，而是学习如何预判愤怒；不是和朋友一起玩耍，而是为了躲避而自我隔离，出于恐惧。而当他们无法逃脱，或没有语言来解释正在发生在他们身上的事情时，我们的系统——以及他们身边的成年人——没有看到他们的痛苦。
Instead of learning to read, they learn how to anticipate anger; instead of playing with their friends, they isolate to keep away, out of fear. And when they cannot escape or do not have the words to explain what is happening to them, our system – and the adults around them – do not see their suffering. A new landmark decade-long study by University of Sydney researchers shows that sexual and family violence against children is at a crisis point.
悉尼大学研究人员的一项具有里程碑意义的十年研究显示，针对儿童的性暴力和家庭暴力已达到危机点。研究人员分析了2014年至2024年的澳大利亚数据，发现针对10岁以下女孩的记录在案性侵案增加了32%，10至17岁女孩增加了51%，10至17岁男孩增加了60%。与家庭和家庭暴力相关的针对儿童的袭击案在近年来也急剧上升。这是一场全国性紧急事件。
Analysing Australian data from 2014 to 2024, researchers found that recorded sexual assaults against children had increased by 32% among girls under 10, 51% among girls 10 to 17 and 60% among boys 10 to 17. Family and domestic violence-related assaults against children also increased sharply in recent years. This is a national emergency. This study cannot explain exactly why violence is increasing.
这项研究无法确切解释暴力为何在增加。我们知道，报告增加、经济压力和网络文化的变化都是导致这一现象的因素。但袭击导致的住院人数和得到证实的儿童虐待案件并未同步上升，这暴露出警方记录与周围系统所捕捉到的情况之间存在令人不安的差距。而且情况远比这些数字所能展现的要糟得多。
We know greater reporting, economic pressures and changing online cultures are all contributing factors. But the fact that assault-related hospitalisations and substantiated child maltreatment cases did not rise in step exposes a disturbing gap between what police are recording and what systems around them are capturing. And the picture is so much worse than what these numbers can show. In my work as the former Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, I travelled across the country and sat with children who could no longer live with their families.
作为前联合国澳大利亚青年代表，我在全国各地奔走，与那些无法再与家人同住的孩子们坐在一起交谈。我也曾与监狱中的孩子们坐在一起，对他们而言，虐待、暴力和忽视已成为日常生活的一部分。
I have also sat with children in prison, for whom abuse, violence and neglect is part of their everyday routine. I remember one 14-year-old girl I met from the Northern Territory, Kate*.
我记得曾在北领地遇到的一名14岁女孩，名叫凯特*。她的家就像一场清醒的噩梦，充斥着虐待。面对自己卧室里即将到来的暴力，她选择逃离家园，流落街头。
Her home was a waking nightmare of abuse. Faced with the imminent violence waiting for her in her own bedroom, she fled to the streets. The alternative was frightening and uncertain, but staying meant confronting a terror she could no longer bear.
另一种选择令人恐惧且充满不确定，但留下意味着她将不得不面对自己已无法承受的恐怖。
She was hungry.
她饥肠辘辘，需要生存。她为了填饱肚子而偷窃。而正因为她偷窃，她被逮捕了。
She needed to survive. She stole to feed herself. And because she stole, she was arrested.
系统看到的是一个惊恐的14岁女孩，却把她视为敌人。它视而不见她身上的淤伤，未能看到一个需要安全、保护以及有人倾听的年幼孩子。
The system looked at a terrified 14-year-old girl and saw an enemy. It looked past her bruises and failed to see a young child who needed safety, protection and someone to listen.
据澳大利亚卫生与福利研究所的数据，2022–23财年，青少年司法系统中有65%的儿童曾与儿童保护系统有过接触。其中，被拘留的儿童有一半在那段时间内经历过虐待或忽视。而这个百分比仅反映了那些主动报告的案例。
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 65% of children in youth justice systems 2022–23 had interacted with the child protection system. Half of those in detention experienced abuse or neglect during that period. And that percentage is only the ones who reported it.
孩子们从根本上需要爱。他们需要一个由关爱、人员和服务构成的支撑体系——在他们的成长过程中，像双臂般环抱着他们，能够及时察觉异常，并在他们的人生陷入危机之前一直陪伴在他们身边。
Children fundamentally need love. They need an infrastructure of care, people and services that wrap their arms around them as they grow, recognise when something is wrong and stay beside them before their lives reach crisis point.
但一线服务正承受巨大压力。家庭在获取支持时面临延误，而社会工作者因时间和资源有限，被迫拒绝一些寻求帮助的人。政府部门仍然各自为政，部门之间缺乏协作。但孩子们不会将他们的生活割裂成孤立的部分来体验。
But frontline services are strained. Families face delays in accessing support, while social workers are forced to turn away clients based on limited time and resources. Government departments continue to operate in silos. But children do not experience their lives in silos.
残疾、无家可归、暴力和忽视常常在一个孩子的生活中交织在一起。但我们的系统是分散的。警察看到的是直接对峙；老师注意到行为上的细微变化；护士处理身体上的淤伤；儿童保护工作者读到一份报告——但由于这些机构很少相互交流，没有人能看到完整的画面，或看到整个孩子。而对于那些“与众不同”的孩子，这些缺口可能是致命的。
Disability, homelessness, violence and neglect collide, very often in a single child's life. But our systems are fragmented. Police see a direct confrontation; a teacher notices a slight change in behaviour; a nurse treats physical bruise; and a child-protection worker reads a single report – but because those agencies rarely talk to one another, none of them see the full picture, or the entire child. And for children who are "different", those gaps are fatal.
我的妹妹不会说话，我知道“无言”并不意味着没有话要说。我亲眼目睹了她和同样不会说话的同龄人为了被倾听和理解所付出的艰辛努力。
My sister is non-verbal, and I know that an absence of "words" does not mean having nothing to say. I have seen first-hand how hard her and her peers, who are also non-verbal, have to fight just to be listened to and understood.
对于任何在语言表达上有困难的孩子来说，透露暴力经历极其困难——也许这就是为什么报告数量跟不上这场危机的规模。这些孩子无法用言语告诉老师家里发生了什么，或告诉父母在学校发生了什么。他们无法以“预期”的方式在无菌环境中回答警察的连续提问。他们的痛苦可能被视为“行为问题”，或者他们的沉默被误解为没有痛苦。
For any child who struggles with speech, disclosing violence is incredibly hard – and maybe this is why reporting has not kept up with the sheer magnitude of this crisis. These children cannot verbally tell a teacher what happened at home, or their parents what happened at school. They cannot answer rapid-fire questions in a sterile room by police in the "expected" way. Their distress might be seen as a "behavioural problem", or their silence misunderstood as an absence of pain.
来自难民或移民背景、英语不是第一语言的孩子，如果缺乏文化安全的语言支持，也会在寻求帮助时遇到障碍。
Children from refugee or migrant backgrounds who do not speak English as their first language also face barriers to seeking assistance if they lack culturally safe language support.
我们需要提供可及且具文化胜任力的服务，让孩子能够轻松、无恐惧地表达他们遭遇的暴力经历。更多的一线工作人员和专业人士应接受培训，以识别和回应孩子表现出的不同形式的交流和痛苦。
We need accessible and culturally competent services for children to communicate their experiences of violence, easily and without fear. More frontline workers and professionals should be trained to recognise and respond to the different forms of communication and distress that a child exhibits.
我们需要各级政府挺身而出，承担起共同的儿童安全责任，并推动机构间的协调。否则，我们最脆弱的孩子将在司法和部门边界的裂缝中被遗漏。还必须对预防和早期干预进行长期投入。
We need all levels of government to step up, take shared responsibility for child safety and facilitate coordination between agencies. Otherwise our most vulnerable children will slip through the cracks of jurisdictional and departmental boundaries. There must also be long-term investment in prevention and early intervention.
但最重要的是，我们必须倾听孩子们在说什么。因为当一个14岁的孩子告诉你，冰冷的牢房比他们自己的卧室更安全——这就是我们知道我们已经辜负了孩子们的方式。
But most of all, we must listen to what our kids are saying. Because when a 14-year-old tells you that a cold prison cell feels safer than their own bedroom – that's how we know we've failed our children.
我们不能等到另一个孩子死亡，政府才决定他们的痛苦很重要。孩子不应该为了让成年人终于关注，而必须找到描述他们所受虐待的“正确词语”。创伤没有词汇可言。
We cannot wait until another child is dead before governments decide their suffering matters. A child should never have to find the "right words" for their abuse in order for an adult to finally pay attention. There is no vocabulary for trauma.
*不是她的真名 在澳大利亚，儿童、青少年、父母和老师可以拨打儿童热线1800 55 1800寻求帮助；成年幸存者可以联系蓝色结基金会（Blue Knot Foundation）电话1300 657 380。在英国，NSPCC为儿童提供支持，电话为0800 1111；担心儿童的成年人可拨打0808 800 5000。国家童年受虐人士协会（Napac）为成年幸存者提供支持，电话为0808 801 0331。在美国，可拨打或发送短信至儿童帮助虐待热线800-422-4453。其他求助途径可在国际儿童热线（Child Helpline International）处找到。
*Not her real name In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International