SA Government launches See the Signs campaign to educate about coercive control

Would you know if you were in a controlling relationship? A new campaign is warning young people about the red flags – and they might not be what you expect.

An app on your phone tells him where you are at any moment.

None of your friends like him.

He hates half your clothes, so you don’t wear them anymore.

These are all potential red flags of a controlling relationship.

Now a new campaign is warning young people to recognise them as signs of coercive control, a pattern of behaviour that can turn deadly.

The See the Signs campaign, launched by the SA Government, is appearing on social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat and on bus shelters around metropolitan Adelaide.

Developed by award-winning advertising agency Showpony, the campaign videos feature a young man and woman speaking to their social media followers about their relationship.

“Her friends... I told her not to see them,” the young man says about his girlfriend.

“They suck. And I know they don’t like me,” he adds, laughing.

As he speaks, little red flags pop up on the screen each time he says something that could be a sign of coercive control.

When he mentions that his girlfriend might be “breaking the rules”, up pops a flag.

By the time the video ends he is telling his followers “I can find her anywhere” using a phone tracking app – and his image is covered in fluttering flags.

Screenshot of a See the Signs campaign video warning about potential red flags of coercive control in relationships.

In a second video a young woman explains how her boyfriend wants her to stay home, and dismisses his monitoring of her behaviour – another common red flag – as “just being protective”.

Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Minister Katrine Hildyard explained that coercive control is “displayed through things like obsessive jealousy, monitoring of a person’s movements, who they speak to, name-calling, humiliation, belittling, and preventing someone from sleeping, seeing their relatives or having fun with friends”.

“These are all behaviours that are designed to wear a person down and leave them feeling isolated, powerless, small, or like they are ‘going crazy’,” she said.

Screenshot of a See the Signs campaign video warning about potential red flags of coercive control in relationships.

Analysis of deaths around Australia has found coercive control was present in the lead-up to almost every domestic violence murder in recent years.

The SA government is consulting on new laws to make coercive control a criminal offence, in line with similar moves in NSW and Queensland, where the shocking killing of Hannah Clarke and her three children by her estranged husband sparked reform.

“It is absolutely time for this invisible form of violence to be criminalised. And it will be,” Ms Hildyard said.

She expects to introduce legislation to state parliament “in the second half of the year”.

“For the laws to work effectively ... more people need to understand what coercive control looks like,” Ms Hildyard said.

“We need more people in our community aware of it, those who experience it to feel empowered to seek help and those who perpetrate it to stop.”