SYDNEY – Sexual assault and family violence-related assaults involving children increased sharply across Australia between 2014 and 2024, with violence accelerating in the last three to five years, an Australian study has found.

The study found that sexual assault rates rose by 51 percent among girls aged 10-17 and 60 percent among boys in the same age group over 2014-2024. Among boys aged 10-17, rates rose sharply from 2021, at 15.7 percent per year, according to a statement released Wednesday by Australia's University of Sydney.

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Family violence-related assault rates also rose sharply from around 2020 among both boys and girls, with annual increases ranging from 8 percent to 20 percent across several age and gender groups, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open.

Researchers cited possible contributing factors including rising income inequality, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, cost-of-living pressures, changing online gender norms, gaps in support services and increased reporting of violence.

Lead author Lucy Grummitt from the university's Matilda Center for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use called for greater investment in prevention and early intervention to protect children from violence.

The study found no significant change in hospitalizations for assault-related injuries among children and no increase in substantiated child maltreatment cases over the same period.

However, the researchers warned that declining substantiated cases could reflect limited capacity among child protection agencies to investigate reports of abuse, rather than a genuine reduction in violence.