The Algorithm Age

Children's imaginations ran wild when a man from the moon with a pencil for a nose began to squiggle. Mr Squiggle lit up TV screens for 40 years — and now, decades after the kids' program last aired, the National Museum of Australia in Canberra is displaying hundreds of iconic Mr Squiggle items. The exhibit includes creator Norman Hetherington's artworks, scripts, and puppets. Hetherington operated and voiced the blue-haired, floppy, pencil-nosed puppet, with the role a perfect marriage of his skills as a cartoonist and puppeteer. Nineties kids will remember Mr Squiggle's sidekicks grumpy Blackboard, Bill Steamshovel and Gus the Snail. There was also Miss Rebecca, the daughter of Norman Hetherington and the show's last host. "The museum has done such an amazing job of collating it and restoring bits and pieces that needed a little bit of attention," Rebecca Hetherington said. "I'm so excited that...

A nine-year-old girl died in a hot car in Texas on Monday after her mother left her there while she went to work, local officials said. Her death followed the passing of a three-month-old infant boy in Mission in the same state on Friday and the death of a four-year-old in Brownsville on Saturday, both likewise trapped in overheated vehicles. NBC’s local affiliate reports that a man in Mission is facing a charge of injury to a child causing death after admitting that he had been drinking and had forgotten the infant was in the car when he went to lie down. The same outlet reports that a woman is facing the same charge in Brownsville after a four-year-old was found unresponsive in a daycare van. In the most recent incident, cops were called to the scene in Galena Park on Monday just after 2pm, where the child was found “unresponsive” in a white Toyota Camry sedan that was backed into a parking lot and had a visor displayed on the windscreen. “Nobody would necessarily ha...

When detectives discovered a cache of child abuse material allegedly in the hands of a Melbourne childcare worker, it started the clock ticking on an unprecedented response from police and public health authorities. After raiding the home of 26-year-old Joshua Dale Brown in May, police faced the daunting and distressing task of trying to identify eight children, some as young as five months old, whom it is alleged he had abused and filmed. They also tracked Brown’s work history, fearing the allegations against him at one centre in the city’s west may be only the tip of the iceberg. They uncovered that he had worked at 20 childcare centres across the city since 2017. Sex crimes detectives have now focused their attention on Brown’s time at a centre in Essendon, where they are investigating whether abuse occurred, and police are urging anyone with further information to come forward. For weeks, police and the Health Department grappled with how to reveal the ...

A class action lawsuit could be launched on behalf of families caught up in a horrific child sex abuse investigation that has rocked Melbourne. Former childcare worker Joshua Brown, 26, is facing 70 charges for the alleged sexual abuse of eight victims aged between five months and two years old. The charges relate to offences police allege occurred at Creative Gardens Early Learning in Point Cook between April 2022 and January 2023. READ MORE: Melbourne family risk being deported to South Korea over 'misunderstanding' Police continue to investigate Brown's conduct at 19 other childcare centres he worked at between 2017 and 2025. The investigation has prompted Victorian authorities to urge 1200 families to send their young children for precautionary STI testing. A dozen families have already reached out for legal advice from Arnold, Thomas & Becker lawyers, who said it has "not ruled out" the possibility of a class action. ...

Recent cases of prolific alleged child sexual abuse in Melbourne and other Australian early childhood education and care settings have shocked even experienced people who work to prevent child sexual abuse. Parents are right to be outraged, scared and uncertain. The most pressing issue, then, is what we do about it. Regulation and practice is still falling short, despite all our knowledge and prior recommendations. We have the benefit of the gold-standard Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (including Volume 6 on making institutions child-safe). We can also draw on rigorous scientific work about how best to prevent child sexual abuse in child and youth-serving organisations. Criminal history checks are essential, but many offenders will not have a criminal record. These checks are only one part of an entire safety system. Other measures are arguably even more important. The federal government, together with states and territories,...

Shocked parents who unknowingly handed over their children to an alleged sex abuser are demanding answers as "gutted" workers back safety changes. Former childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, 26, was charged with more than 70 sex offences against eight alleged victims aged under two at a centre at Point Cook, in Melbourne's southwest. Father-of-three Satbir, who didn't want his surname used, recognised the alleged offender on the news. He said he went to Creative Garden Early Learning Centre for details about Brown's supervision of his children in 2023. "I dropped off my child into his hands a couple of times," Satbir told . "I'm a bit worried. I (need) to find out everything. I've seen him in the classroom where I dropped my children." He wanted advice on whether two of his children needed to be tested for infectious diseases after more than 1200 families were told to have their infants screened. Allegations again...

The role of men in the early childhood sector is being questioned after horrific allegations of child sexual abuse at multiple childcare centres across Melbourne. But a ban on male early childhood educators is not the right solution, experts say, as it would not address systemic issues facing the sector. Hundreds of Melbourne families have been told to have their children tested for infectious diseases after childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was charged with more than 70 sex offences against children. While caution about men working closely with children was justified, banning men from the sector would have an adverse effect, University of South Australia early childhood education senior lecturer Martyn Mills-Bayne said. "Children need to have a diverse group of adults around them in childcare and in life," he told . "Young boys and girls need to see good men around them who are demonstrating how to be in the world ... if you take men out of that, kids ...

Eight alleged victims and 70 charges of child sexual abuse. Another 1200 children have been urged to undergo testing for sexually transmitted diseases. A childcare educator accused of abuse who worked across 20 different centres. Written like this, these alleged facts, if proven, make for sickening reading. But there are still many questions, such as whether anyone had previously noticed anything about the man – Joshua Dale Brown – now charged, what led police to raid the 26-year-old’s home in Point Cook, and what needs to happen to better protect children. Chris Vedelago , senior reporter for The Age , is among the reporting team piecing together the case for this masthead. Vedelago explains how the case unfolded in the latest episode of The Morning Edition podcast with host Samantha Selinger-Morris . Click the player below to listen, or read on for an edited extract. Selinger-Morris: So, Chris, ...

Parents of potential victims of alleged child sex offender Joshua Dale Brown have spoken about the "heartbreaking" and sickening moments they found out their very young children may have been sexually molested while at child care. Mr Brown, 26, was charged with more than 70 offences allegedly involving eight children at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, in Melbourne's western suburbs, between April 2022 and January 2023. Police said the alleged victims were between five months and two years of age. Some 1,200 children have been recommended to get tested for sexually transmitted infections, namely chlamydia and gonorrhoea. One mother was arriving at one of the centres Mr Brown had previously worked in as police were leaving, and said her child's educator was in tears, before she then found out about Mr Brown. "They told me there had been a person who had been charged with sexual abuse and things related to...

Climate change is said to be scaring young children in Australia, and a leading expert has come up with a controversial solution — don’t tell them about it. “It's really difficult to see kids who are very fearful at such young ages in front of me who have sleep disorders, who have clinical ranges of anxiety over this,” psychologist Clare Rowe told Yahoo News. She’s the author of a controversial report published by conservative think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), which argues climate change should not be taught to primary school children. In response, 150 experts in mental health, medicine and education have published an open letter rejecting this claim, arguing that what's actually scaring children is their lived experience of environmental disasters, the failure of government to act, and adults not listening to their concerns. There's no doubt that climate and the environment are worrying Aussie kids — a 2024 survey of 15 to 19-year-olds found ...

Ministers are racing to close gaps in Australia's child safety laws that have been left open for years, in the wake of another shocking case of alleged child abuse at a centre in Victoria. State and territory governments have responsibility for child protection and enforcement in childcare centres — but it is the Commonwealth that funds providers. That tension is again in question after a 26-year-old man was charged with dozens of child abuse offences at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook. It has reopened questions about gaps in Australia's laws, including how unsafe centres continue to receive funding, around how safety standards are enforced and around the systems monitoring workers — which remain a patchwork of rules a decade on from recommendations for reform. Education Minister Jason Clare has reaffirmed that the government is urgently progressing laws it announced in March to strip funding from childcare providers who rep...

Horrific allegations of child sexual abuse in childcare centres across Melbourne have put the role of men in early childhood education back in the spotlight. Coming after other major media reports of child mistreatment in care, many parents are feeling very anxious about the safety of their children. Some may be deeply suspicious of men working so closely with children. That caution is totally justified. But there are many innocent, well-intentioned and caring men working in centres across the country. They’re playing a vital role in a sector already plagued by well-documented staff shortages . Driving them out of the workforce would be a mistake for the sector, for parents and for children. Read more: Parents of kids in daycare are terrified following Melbourne abuse allegations. What can they do? Hyper-viligant behaviour Men are still a rarity in childcare centres nationally. The latest workforce data show about 8% of early childhood e...

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has urged Britons to have more children because of the “worrying repercussions” of a plummeting birth rate. What she seems to be forgetting is that not everyone sees having kids as the ultimate goal. I certainly don’t. In an article for The Telegraph, Phillipson stated that too many young couples were hesitant to have children due to the high costs involved. Finances have influenced my decision not to have children. As a freelance writer I was never going to be a high earner – I have never been ambitious nor hungry enough to make a lot of cash – and I vividly remember watching my parents struggle with money throughout my childhood. They didn’t have much outside help, so to keep childcare costs down, my parents worked shifts, with my dad starting work at 6am and finishing at 2pm, coming home in time to wave my mum off to work for the rest of the day. It meant they barely saw each other except for weekends. But it’s not just abou...

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has urged Britons to have more children because of the “worrying repercussions” of a plummeting birth rate. What she seems to be forgetting is that not everyone sees having kids as the ultimate goal. I certainly don’t. In an article for The Telegraph, Phillipson stated that too many young couples were hesitant to have children due to the high costs involved. Finances have influenced my decision not to have children. As a freelance writer I was never going to be a high earner – I have never been ambitious nor hungry enough to make a lot of cash – and I vividly remember watching my parents struggle with money throughout my childhood. They didn’t have much outside help, so to keep childcare costs down, my parents worked shifts, with my dad starting work at 6am and finishing at 2pm, coming home in time to wave my mum off to work for the rest of the day. It meant they barely saw each other except for weekends. But it’s not just abou...

The parents of more than 1000 children being tested for sexually transmitted infections after a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with abuse should know their child’s health status within days. Medical experts have also advised that the majority of STIs are treatable with a course of antibiotics. Victoria Police revealed on Tuesday that 26-year-old Point Cook man Joshua Dale Brown was arrested and charged in May with more than 70 offences, including child rape. Brown worked at several childcare centres in Melbourne and one centre in Geelong. His alleged victims were aged between five months and two years. The eight alleged victims were from one centre in Point Cook. What will the children be tested for? The Health Department has been in contact with affected families and is recommending that about 1200 children undergo free testing for infectious diseases following the allegations. A police source, speaking on the condition of an...

Nicola Trotman grew up as an avid bookworm, often reading under the duvet by torchlight. So when her daughter Sadie, who will turn two in August, was born, she made a point of instilling a similar love of books. “After bath time, we read stories to her. It’s a habit we really enjoy and that she really enjoys, so much so that everyone says she’s going to be a bit of a bookworm like me,” says the 34-year-old PR director from Melbourne. “It’s really helped a lot with her language development. You can have almost conversations with her … she knows all her animals, she’s learning colours at the moment. She knows her ABCs already.” Bedtime reading at an all-time low New research from HarperCollins UK , however, has found the number of parents reading aloud to children is at an all-time low. Fewer than half of parents of children under 13 said reading aloud to children was “fun for me”, while fewer than half of 0- to 4-year-olds a...

More than 1000 children need screening for infectious diseases as parents complain they've been left in the dark after a childcare worker was charged with dozens of sex offences. Joshua Brown, 26, was charged on May 12 with more than 70 offences connected to eight victims at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre at Point Cook, in Melbourne's west, between April 2022 and January 2023. Police revealed details of the case on Tuesday following a "proactive investigation" to find the alleged victims after the man was allegedly caught with child abuse material. Brown's arrest led to a broader investigation by the sexual crimes squad, which established he worked at 20 childcare centres between January 2017 and May 2025. "At this stage, we are recommending that around 1200 children undergo testing for infectious diseases," Victorian chief health officer Christian McGrath said. Officials would not disclose the types of diseases but said they ...