New online resources on consent and peer pressure for teachers and parents

Australian teachers and parents will have access to more than 350 new online materials about safe and respectful relationships from Wednesday, to help schools and families talk about topics including consent and peer pressure.

Online content released through the federal government’s Respect Matters program comes as the nation’s schools continue to grapple with an outpouring of testimonies about teenage sexual assault within their communities.

Federal Education and Youth Minister Alan Tudge said parents were the most important people to teach children about respect and relationships but that schools could also play a “vital role”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The videos, digital stories and podcasts are published on a new government website, The Good Society, and aligned to student age groups.

Primary school material focuses on empathy, peer pressure and challenging discrimination; year 7 to 9 resources look at power and abuse; while year 10 to 12 materials include content on intimate relationships, sexting and sexual consent.

Teachers will be able to choose if they want to use the materials in the classroom, and will also have access to professional learning modules. Parents and students can access them for free online.

Federal Education and Youth Minister Alan Tudge said parents were the most important people to teach children about respect and relationships but that schools could also play a “vital role”.

“These materials will provide additional support to better educate young Australians on these issues and have been designed to complement programs already being offered by states and territories,” he said.

“I will be discussing these matters further with my state and territory counterparts when we meet later this month.”

Consent education is also on the agenda for the upcoming Australian curriculum review, which opens for public consultation on April 29.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority is consulting with respectful relationships experts and teachers as it prepares to release proposed content changes, having acknowledged the status quo “may not be sufficient”.

Anne Ruston, the federal government’s Minister for Women’s Safety, said early intervention and education programs were essential to combat family and sexual violence.

“School years are crucial in a child’s development and we want to guarantee that whether it be at home, at school or even playing weekend sport, that kids and their parents have been informed about what is respectful behaviour and what is not,” Ms Ruston said.

The Respect Matters program, which has been developed with the eSafety Commissioner, Foundation for Young Australians and stakeholder groups, was established under the government’s 2015 women’s safety package.

But experts have also been advocating for “whole-of-school” approaches to addressing gender inequality that move beyond discretionary resources, since activist Chanel Contos launched a petition for earlier mandatory sex and consent education.

Part of the challenge in teaching the existing sex and consent education curriculum is that it can be left to the discretion of individual classroom teachers.