Existing research points to a gap in knowledge regarding what teachers in primary schools know about harmful sexual behaviour, and about how they react and deal with this behaviour in the school setting. This article sets out to better understand this gap based on results from a digital survey carried out among teachers in primary schools in SouthEastern Norway. Data were collected from 15 primary schools with a total of 159 respondents from a selection of 376 teachers, which makes up a response rate of 42.3%. Findings from the survey show that teachers report lack of knowledge about children who display problematic and harmful sexual behaviour, and that they struggle to find an appropriate response towards the behaviour when observed in school. The article identifies both individual and systemic responses in schools that may impede early intervention towards harmful sexual behaviour.

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Sexual abuse is a public health issue with long-term consequences for children’s lives and education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a key reference point in safeguarding, increasingly incorporated into domestic law. This article aims to strengthen safeguarding theory and practice by reviewing human rights education (HRE) theory and aligning it with care-based ethics. It proposes a renewed focus on HRE in teacher education that examines the teacher’s role and professional responsibilities, strengthens rights-based knowledge, and explores the transformative power of rights. By empowering teachers with skills to recognise and act on harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), they can become powerful human rights defenders, protecting children against child-on-child and adult-on-child abuse.  Drawing on empirical data on teachers’ understandings of HSB, we apply theory, cautioning against an under-theorised approach that over-relies on rights knowledge or children’s ability to claim their rights in an emotionally charged arena with asymmetrical power relations.

Sexual abuse of children is a growing public health issue, with a substantial proportion of such abuse carried out by other children and young people. Schools and teachers are uniquely placed to prevent and intervene against harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) among children and young people. Yet, for schools to safeguard effectively, they are reliant on cooperation with a range of children’s services. This study forms part of a wider research project exploring teachers’ safeguarding role. It identifies two emerging issues critical in interpreting the data and developing sound safeguarding processes: recognition of the role of professionals’ emotional reactions in addressing HSB and the impact of asymmetrical power relations. Building on Draugedalen and Osler’s theorisation of teachers’ safeguarding, this article examines front-line service providers’ perspectives on how they can support schools’ safeguarding, proposing a holistic structure of transformative practices that addresses emotions and asymmetrical power relations.

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