Research & policy
This page exists to make our claims checkable, and to be explicit about which of them are not yet supported by anything but reasoning.
Where we currently stand
We think it matters to say this plainly on a public site: The First Tell Project has not yet completed a formal literature review of the research on children's disclosure of sexual abuse, forensic interviewing, or the effects of adult response on disclosure and recovery. That work is scoped and not done.
Until it is, the educational material on this site is an argued position informed by lived experience and by publicly available guidance — not a synthesis of the evidence. We label it as a draft everywhere it appears, and we will not describe it as evidence-based on the strength of good intentions.
Sources currently relied on
| Source | Type | Used for | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government of Ontario — Report child abuse and neglect | Official | Ontario reporting duty and route | 2026-08-14 |
| Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies — Duty to report | Official / sector | Section 125 CYFSA duty, who reports, what is required | 2026-08-14 |
| Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal | Academic portal | Duty to report across provinces and territories; agency directory | 2026-08-14 |
| Cybertip.ca (Canadian Centre for Child Protection) — Duty to Report | Official tipline / charity | Provincial and territorial duty-to-report detail, reporter anonymity | 2026-08-14 |
| Canadian Centre for Child Protection | Registered charity | National programmes, prevention and survivor support | 2026-08-14 |
| Kids Help Phone | Registered charity | Youth crisis support contact details and coverage | 2026-08-14 |
| Public Safety Canada — National Strategy | Official | National context on online child sexual exploitation | 2026-08-14 |
| W3C — WCAG 2.2 | Standard | Accessibility target for this site | 2026-08-14 |
| OWASP ASVS | Standard | Security verification standard for future authenticated tools | 2026-08-14 |
| Office of the Privacy Commissioner — PIPEDA principles | Official | Privacy design baseline | 2026-08-14 |
Planned research programme
- Systematic review of children's disclosure processes and barriers.
- Review of the effect of first-adult response on subsequent disclosure and recovery.
- Review of forensic interviewing literature, to define precisely what TELL must not do.
- Specialist review of the TELL Protocol, with named reviewers and published changes.
- Development and validation of the Second Injury Index instrument.
- A verified Canadian provincial and territorial reporting and services matrix.
Correction policy
If something on this site is wrong, we would rather hear it from you than leave it up. Corrections are made openly: we fix the page, note what changed, and date it. We do not quietly edit.