Not on the street. Not at school. At home. This is the data — by age, by room, by type of harm. Physical and emotional. And nearly all of it is preventable.
This site maps those risks by room, by age, and by type — physical and emotional — so you can see what matters most, and act before it happens. Calm, clear, sourced. No fear-mongering.
The dangers ranked by how often they actually harm Australian children — with the numbers, the peak ages, and the source behind every claim.
Explore dangers →What threatens an infant is different from what threatens a teenager. See how the risks change from 0–1 through to 15–17.
See by age →Room-by-room checklists, product recalls, poisons info and drowning prevention — the practical steps that turn data into safety.
Open the storehouse →The same home changes with the child. Choose an age band and each room shows what actually harms children that age — tap a room to focus, and get the one thing that prevents it.
Hazards and peak ages compiled from AIHW Injury in Australia, Kidsafe Australia, Royal Life Saving, ACCC Product Safety and Red Nose. Guidance is general — always follow current product and state safety advice.
Leading cause of injury hospitalisation for children 0–14 in Australia. Furniture, stairs, play equipment, bunk beds, change tables.
Source: AIHW Injury in Australia 2023
Leading cause of death for children 1–4 in Australia. Bathtubs, buckets, pools and pet water bowls are all involved in fatal incidents.
Source: Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report 2023
Cleaning products, medications, essential oils, button batteries. 80% of poisoning in under-5s happens at home. Dishwasher pods look like lollies.
Source: NSW Poisons Information Centre Annual Report
Hot drinks, bath water, stoves, irons, hair straighteners. A cup of coffee can cause a full-thickness burn in a toddler in under one second.
Source: Australian Burns Registry 2023
Food (grapes, sausages, nuts), small objects, blind cords, plastic bags, soft bedding for infants. 3rd leading cause of injury death for under-3s.
Source: AIHW & Kidsafe Australia
20mm lithium coin cells can burn through a child's oesophagus in two hours. Found in remotes, toys, watches, bathroom scales and key finders.
Source: ACCC Product Safety Australia
Percentage of Australian children exposed by age 18 — self-reported in the AIFS Growing Up in Australia study and related national surveys. No bruises, but lasting effects.
Emotional and physical harm rates run 2–5× higher in remote areas and the lowest socioeconomic communities. Where prevention support is thinnest, the risk is highest.
Sources: AIFS Growing Up in Australia · AIHW Child Protection Australia 2022–23 · ABS Personal Safety Survey 2016
Sources: AIHW Child Protection Australia 2022–23 · AIHW Injury in Australia · Kidsafe Australia
That's 175 children per day. One every 8 minutes. Falls, poisoning, burns and drowning — in the place meant to keep them safe.
We spend billions on road safety — ads, cameras, campaigns. Home injuries outnumber road injuries 18:1 for under-5s. The funding is inverted.
Sources: AIHW Injury in Australia 2022–23 · ABS Causes of Death
The risks change as children grow. What threatens an infant is different from what threatens a teenager — but every age has hidden risks at home.
Most vulnerable to suffocation from soft bedding and co-sleeping, falls from change tables and beds, and drowning in as little as 3cm of water. Button battery ingestion begins here.
The highest injury rate of any age group. Mobile enough to reach danger, too young to assess it. Poisoning, scalds, pool drowning and falls from play equipment all peak here.
Physical injury rates drop, but outdoor home risks emerge: trampolines (~6,500 hospitalisations/yr), dog bites and cycling injuries. Emotional harm from family conflict becomes more visible at school age.
Physical injury rates fall but intentional self-harm hospitalisations begin rising sharply. Online bullying, parental conflict and DV exposure contribute to mental-health crises. 1 in 7 will self-harm by age 17.
Self-harm hospitalisations peak at 15–17 (3× the rate of 10–14). Substance experimentation at home. For children in out-of-home care, the "leaving-care cliff" at 18 removes support when it is most needed.
A toddler can drown in 3cm of water — the bottom of a bucket, an esky, or a pet's bowl. It happens silently, in under a minute.
A cup of tea or coffee stays hot enough to cause a serious scald for up to 15 minutes after it's made. Most childhood scalds are from hot drinks.
A swallowed button battery can begin burning through soft tissue in as little as 2 hours. If you suspect one, go straight to emergency — don't wait for symptoms.
Four-sided pool fencing with a self-closing, self-latching gate cuts a young child's drowning risk by up to 80%. Prevention isn't expensive — it's a latch.
Sources: Royal Life Saving · Kidsafe Australia · ACCC Product Safety
"The most dangerous place for a child in this country isn't the street, and it isn't the school. It's home — and that means nearly every one of these injuries is something a family can prevent." — Child Safety at Home
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