These are Australia's most vulnerable kids, betrayed and neglected, not only by their parents but by the system designed to protect them. They're known as 'resi kids' after the group homes they live in, run by private operators and charities. Some were taken into care as babies, others after years of abuse. They're often difficult to manage but desperately in need of help. In this searing Four Corners investigation, we reveal that rather than protecting and nurturing these children, some private operators are treating them as badly as the families they escaped. It's prompted some in the child protection system to brand their treatment a national failure and call for the entire resi care system to be shut down. This investigation, nearly three months in the making, continues online in a special digital feature with further revelations of systemic failings.

Four Corners is Australia's premier television current affairs program. It has been part of the Australian story since August 1961, exposing scandals, triggering inquiries, firing debate, confronting taboos and interpreting fads, trends and sub-cultures. Its consistently high standards of journalism and film-making have earned international recognition and an array of Walkleys, Logies and other national awards.