Lockdown Topic: Children trapped in abusive homes throughout lockdown

I'm pondering the pandemic situation here. I've been very lucky being in Tas I haven't experienced the long periods of isolation in lockdown like my mainland friends have endured.

I've been thinking back on my childhood and teenage years as I often do. My home environment wasn't a safe or healthy place to be in. When I was in High School I pretty much didn't go home if I could help it. I'd go to mates places, the arcade, go skating at the warehouse, or I'd just walk around the neighbourhood to pass the time. I didn't want to be at home.

This gets me thinking about all the kids who are trapped in their abusive homes with no reprieve throughout the lockdown. I can't imagine the damage the lockdown is inflicting on everyone, but in particular, the affect this is having on those kids.

I wonder how things will look for society in 10/20/30 years time. I wonder how monumentally screwed up people are becoming from all this. I wonder if the benefits of lockdowns even outweigh the negative impacts it's having on everyone psychologically. I wonder how many kids won't come out of this alive, or if they do, how fu*ked up they're going to be. I'm fu*ked up and I at least had the option of escape. I wasn't trapped in that environment every second of every day.

It makes my heart feel heavy. I wonder if there are new services being established to help aid people in these situations. And how long will help be available to them?

Here in Tas, child protection services are woefully understaffed and underfunded. I remember reading a report a few years ago now how there were over 200 reports made to child protective services in one year and if I recall correctly only 12 were investigated. We later see the results of this in the news where children die at the hands of abuse and it's heartbreaking to hear when child services recieved reports but didn't act.

The whole system is already garbage and it's never been any different, but what's going to happen from here I wonder?

I don't think we're going to be living in a healthy world in the wake of the pandemic. I know it's not fair for me to weigh in really when I'm not experiencing this to the degree most have been, but I'm just thinking here. Just wondering. Just concerned for all the kids who are becoming irreparably traumatised while trapped in their homes during lockdown.