Child abuse and neglect is one of Australia’s biggest and most misunderstood social problems. Despite being under-reported, Australian authorities confirmed 40,844 children were abused or neglected in one year alone.

That’s one child every 15 minutes suffering physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect, often by someone they know and should be able to trust; most often in their own home. Thousands more cases go unreported, and the number of children and young people in out-of-home care is increasing.

We wanted to inform the Australian public of this alarming statistic, driving them to the Australian Medical Association’s website to read more about the problem.