Ban male nursery workers?

[BluntPlumHam]

I came across this article which has left me quite sick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cze665j2y51o.amp

Said 18 year old was newly qualified nursery worker who’d SA’d and raped 3 year olds.

Nurseries are desperate for workers and I have noticed through friends and families that there is now an increasing number of men entering the profession.

Men traditionally haven’t performed this role and I often find it difficult to envisage what attracts a male to this profession to begin with when we have so many instances of men who run away from childcare responsibilities.

Although men entering the profession can be a positive outcome the other very concerning outcome and on the potential rise is this.

Sex offenders will target this profession no doubt as it gives them easy access to children.

men are significantly more likely than women to sexually assault children.
Official statistics consistently show that the vast majority of individuals convicted of, or reported for, child sexual abuse (CSA) are male. For example:

• In the year ending March 2019, the Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 92% of adults who reported experiencing CSA said the perpetrator was male only.
• In 2022/23, almost 99% of individuals convicted of child sexual abuse offences in the UK were men.
• Reports to the Australian Royal Commission by victims and survivors of institutional abuse revealed that 93.9% of the abuse was perpetrated by an adult man.

So just a blanket ban on them all together ?

It isn’t my personal opinion but I do think we ought to have measures in place to make nurseries more secure and safer. This thread is to invite discussion.

Also, kudos to those brave little 3 year olds who had the courage to tell their parents because they’ve saved a lot of potential victims in the future. My thoughts and wishes for a life time of healing for them and theirs.

If this is true, it will be mainly because women are far more often involved in the care of children in that age group. However, yes women do physically/emotionally abuse young children, though, and suggesting, as a PP has, that most women are maternal is sadly not as true as people like to think.

However, the main point here is that the overwhelming majority of sexual abusers are male. And paedophiles can and do seek out work with young children.

A young woman in a Twickenham nursery recently got several years in prison for abusing babies. My daughter had a man as her key worker at nursery and loved him. Saying they are all sexual criminals is not only unfair. it’s idiotic.

Per capita? Where are you getting this research from? Could you point us to it?

Because it’s per capita that matters for this issue.

We know that men are more likely to abuse children. It’s just a fact. I wouldn’t risk it personally and I’d ban them as a measure to protect children

Just a quick search on Grok does state that adoptive fathers are more likely to abuse than biological ones, but no more than that. I would like to know more.

I don't think we should cite Lucy Letby as an example of a murderous woman for now, anyway. There's still a lot of debate about whether she is potentially innocent.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/19/conviction-the-case-of-lucy-letby-review-documentary-probes-britains-most-notorious-baby-killer

As a man who has worked in early years for 41 years I am appalled at your suggestion. And your assumption that men working in EY is a recent thing is just not true. At the moment I am a teacher of a reception/Y1 class so are you also suggesting that men s

As a man who has just clocked up 41 years in early years your suggestion appals me. And your assumption that men working in this field is relatively new. At present I am a teacher of a reception/Y1 class. Are you suggesting that men should be banned from primary schools and what about men on paediatric wards who have to perform intimate procedures? You ask why men would be attracted to working in EY…. For exactly the same reason as women, the chance to work at the most exciting phase of childhood based on neuroscience and to make a difference to young people’s lives. As for the statistics you quoted they are slightly skewed in favour of your case because what you didn’t mention is the fact that most abuse takes place in or near the home environment and is often perpetrated by a family member or family friend. Few cases occur within care or education settings which is why they are big news when they do. The media doesn’t help by using the term male when they don’t use the term female when a woman commits such a crime . There have been many cases of women abusing children so shall we say that women shouldn’t work with young children either. The only alternative would be for all children to be home educated which would be unworkable and would probably lead to an increase in abuse. Unless you can think of a better way I suggest you revise your sexist thoughts

So what about male nurses and doctors on paediatric wards who routinely have to perform intimate procedures. I am shocked at some of the sexist stuff I’m reading on here

At guess that would be because adoption procedures in the USA are quite lackadaisical.

yes ban male nursery workers.

My children's safety, privacy and dignity aren't part of an equal opportunies discussion.

Rubbish. Says something about you as a parent!!!

Says more about you as a teacher, and a person tbh.

So you think it’s ok to be sexist and generalist. Before becoming a teacher I was in paediatrics. So if your critically ill child came into my care are you saying you’d refuse it based on gender??? Grow up and do your research properly

People should stop comparing childcare workers to, say, children’s doctors. The latter is far less likely to go through medical training just so that he can abuse children. Plus sick children usually have parents by their side most of the time. Childcare is incredibly easy to get into, it takes no effort so it’s a perfect opportunity for abusers to have access to children.

The cold reality is that males carry out 98% of all sexual assaults, women are responsible for 2%.

The risk increases seven-fold when a male who is not biologically related to a child has access to the child.

Based on research done in San Francisco on nearly 1000 girls who were victims of sexual abuse, 1 in 40 had been raped by their biological father (2%) while 1 in 6 had been raped by a stepfather (40%).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0145213484900450

Australia is currently looking to ban males from nurseries following a cook at a nursery putting his semen in the children's food.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-11/childcare-abuse-joshua-dale-brown-papilio-early-learning/105519312

I think they're right.

The risk is simply too high for a non-biologically related male to have access to small children who cannot explain what happened to them.

It is discriminatory but it's a safe-guarding issue and children's safety should be the foremost consideration.

Men and women are equal but not the same - that's why we have single-sex spaces in the first place - because of predatory males.

Pedophiles go wherever they have access to children.

It would only be sexist to ban males from nurseries if women raped children as often as men, but the reality is that men are nearly 50 times more likely to rape a child than a woman.

I wouldn't leave my son alone with a non-related male when he was a child for this reason. Anyone reading the newspapers on a daily basis will come across daily court cases of child abuse by men with access to young children.

Well I would be there supervising, so no. I wouldn't be supervising you in a nursery changing my child's nappy, so it's completely different scenario. Maybe educations not for you given your critical thinking 'skills'.

And I don't give a fuck if you consider child protection sexist quite honestly.

And it's sex, not gender.

👏 👏 👏

🤮😡 Frankly after that I'd be happy to ban men from cooking in schools!

NB : To oversensitive male posters : that isn't meant literally. It's an expression of frustration....

Could be. I will compare to other countries.

Re non-biologicallly related males : something very uncomfortable I have been wondering for a while is :

If a couple with male infertility use sperm donation, does this increase the risk of abuse since there is no biological connection?

I can find no research on this. I hope it is not true. But the question must be asked.

Is Australia itself really planning to ban? I think they should, but the article link doesn't say that.

It seems that some campaigners called for a ban, but it doesn't seem that the government is planning to.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp1x028r9o.amp

How often do they do that without another adult present? Genuine question. I wouldn't be at all happy about that, and I'm afraid I would be a lot more worried about an unchaperoned male than a female.

I must say, your critical thinking skills don't seem up to much for a teacher. Are you trying to argue that there isn't a huge imbalance in the crime stats for sexual abuse of children between men and women? We remember the name of Vanessa George because it's so rare for a woman to be convicted of offences like that. Males convicted are so common that hardly any of their names are remembered.