In psychology, as in many professions, there are ethical duties that are required of psychologists. One of them involves being a mandated reporter of abuse. Being a mandated reporter is not something unique to the field of psychology; all public officials, people who are in people-helping roles in society, are considered mandated reporters. This includes members of the clergy, teachers, mentors, social workers, nurses, doctors, etc. This extends beyond functioning in that role; thus, if a nurse observes or is told of child abuse while on the job, he or she is supposed to report it. One might think that once the nurse goes off duty the mandate recedes, but that is not so. In terms of being a mandated reporter, one is always “on the job”. Why is this so? It is because people who are mandated reporters are expected to know what constitutes abuse and what does not, and so they are equipped to be able to spot it in the general worlds in which they live. Who better, one might ask, to do so?So, what constitutes child abuse? Just what obligates a mandated reporter to report? To whom does a mandated reporter make such a report, and what happens then?First of all, this is not just about child abuse; it is also about elder abuse. So, for most all what I say below, understand that it applies to elders as well.What constitutes abuse? There are three kinds: physical, emotional (or psychological), and sexual. If someone is hitting a child with a closed fist or even with an open hand and doing so in anger, that is abuse. If someone is spanking a child, that could be considered discipline, but that would be relative to the degree of force, the magnitude of the hitting, the mood of the adult administering discipline, the immediate effect and such characteristics. Often “corporal punishment” is still considered to be abusive. If someone is continuously running a child into the ground with verbally demeaning and emotionally loaded, hostile criticisms, threats, demeaning judgments and characterisations, and especially if it can be seen that this upends the child and creates emotional pain, psychological dysfunction, or a retreat from the normal activities of life, that is abusive. If someone is using a child for their personal sexual gratification or marketing the use of the child for the sexual gratification of another, that is abuse.With regards to sexual abuse, there are various forms of it as well, and some of them might go unnoticed at first. Someone is sexually abusing a child [should they] express any of the various forms of paraphilia with them. A paraphilia exists when a person is sexually aroused and/or gratified through the non-consensual engagement with another person. For instance, voyeurism is a paraphilia; so, if a person experiences sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, and behaviours involving the act of observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activities and the person imagines a child in such a scenario that is a problem.If the person acts out such things with a child, that is abusive. Thus, giving a child a bath, or bathing with a child, could be considered abusive. It depends upon what is actually going on. Touching or rubbing against another non-consenting person is called frotteurism; to do something like that with a child would be abusive. Thus having a child sit in one’s lap or skylarking with a child, wrestling around with them, could become abusive. Again, it depends upon what is actually happening. Exposing one’s genitals to a stranger is a paraphilia. Doing so with a child is abusive. Doing any sexual activity with a child is considered to be the paraphilia known as paedophilia (usually considered as such if the child is 13 years old or younger, the abuser is at least 16 years old and five years older than the victim). Obviously, any kind of genital fondling or intercourse between an adult and a child would be considered abusive. Having said that, there are legal parameters to such things as well.What obligates a mandated reporter to report? The public official, people helper, must either observe it happening or hear it from a first-person witness. That is, it is not sufficient for someone to say that they heard someone else talking about it. However, if a doctor sits with a patient and the patient says that he or she has committed or been a victim of such abuse, the doctor is required to report it. This goes the same for a pastor in a church, a teacher in a school, a social worker, a school counselor, a psychotherapist or drug counsellor, or a psychologist.To whom should abuse be reported? There is an abuse hotline at the Department of Child and Family Services that people can use: the Child Abuse Referral Hotline, 278-9111.What happens after a report is made? First of all, it is not the responsibility of the mandated reporter to ascertain the facts, that is, the veracity of the abuse whether or not the abuse actually took place. It is sufficient that the reporter has been exposed directly to the possibility or likelihood that it has taken place. It is the responsibility of Child and Family Services to investigate the veracity of the potential abuse. That may also involve police investigators. The appropriate people are tasked with the job of looking into the matter and protecting all parties to the potential allegations.I would like to make a suggestion. Here it is. When it comes to child sexual abuse could we not all become mandated reporters? For instance, if you know of a child who is acting out sexually and coercing younger children to engage in sexual acts, it is less than caring to ignore it. Chances are the family involved is living in some kind of shame and denial, but you do not have to abide by their dysfunction. Children who are inappropriately sexually active may have been abused themselves. If you know of sexual abuse of a child, following the same example of the limits that apply for mandated reporters, I believe you are under a moral obligation to report it.