Nearly half of the girls surveyed felt less safe to walk alone after dark, up from 18 percent of boys, according to Australian news agency mission Australia's (Mission Australia), according to the Australian news agency.
Nearly half of the Australian girls feel less safe to walk alone after dark, according to the latest survey.
Mission Australia asked nearly 30,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 19 about their values, concerns and aspirations.
The survey found that girls were less reliant on local residents and less likely to feel comfortable in public than boys, and were unlikely to think it safe to walk alone after dark.
Today's annual report found that nearly 47 percent of girls feel unsafe or very unsafe to walk alone after dark, compared with 18.1 percent of boys.
More than 70 percent of boys said they felt comfortable or very comfortable in public, up from 63.1 percent of girls. In addition, 42.1% of boys believe or insist that they can trust locals, up from 35% of girls.
As a result, girls are "unlikely to get the same opportunities as boys," the report said.
In 2016, Australian International Program (Plan International Australia) and our Watch (Our Watch) conducted a similar survey. Nearly a third of respondents said girls should not stay in public places after dark, and about 23 percent said they should not ride public transport alone, the survey found.
"the lack of trust and sense of security confirmed by these studies has a significant impact on young women's public participation, their access to space and services, and their ability to move freely in public places," the mission Australia report said.
"We don't think it's normal for young women to have such low sense of security," Mission Australia Chief Executive Tommy (James Toomey) said in a statement. "We need to ensure that young people thrive in their communities."
The report also makes seven recommendations, including the need to promote evidence-based, gender-sensitive mental health prevention programmes. (Cheng Pui-Yan)