This was published 1 year ago
‘Confused’ parents target of sex consent education campaign
Parents, teachers and sports coaches will be encouraged to have uncomfortable conversations about consent with children as part of a government-led education campaign, while sports clubs, nightclubs and churches will pilot group discussions about sexual violence.
Australian adults have “a lot of confusion” about sexual consent, a representative from the Department of Social Services told a Senate inquiry probing the issue on Monday, citing market research published last year.
Sales of Welcome to Sex have increased online and in stores since the conservative backlash.
“Adults are actually lacking confidence in having those conversations. That suggests we need to provide adults with information first, as a way of backing in the messaging that’s later provided to young people,” she said.
The Senate inquiry is this week considering whether laws and education should be improved after a years-long national conversation about consent, which flared up this month over a sex education book for young people that Big W pulled from its shelves in response to a backlash directed at its staff.
Department of Social Services group manager for women’s safety Greta Doherty told the inquiry that a national campaign promised in the October budget would be aimed at young people’s influencers – including parents, teachers and sports coaches – to address gaps in their understanding about sexual consent, which had been illuminated by research commissioned under the former Coalition government.
“For all the effort you can put in institutional settings like schools or sporting clubs, if those messages aren’t being reiterated at every level in a young person’s life, they’re not going to have cut-through and buy-in,” Doherty said.
The department will also run 10 pilot programs in community hubs to determine the best ways to shift attitudes about sexual violence and set community expectations.
These would be supported by a university-led research team and involve hosting discussions about topics such as positive masculinity, consent and role models. The conversations could be held by team champions or coaches at sports clubs, as well as in nightclubs, music venues and faith-based community centres such as churches, temples or mosques.
A national survey of 20,000 Australians published earlier this year found a split in community attitudes to sexual violence. One-third of respondents thought women used sexual assault claims as retribution and nearly one in four believed women make allegations because they regret consensual sex.
Yumi Stynes’ and Melissa Kang’s new book Welcome to Sex has sparked a fresh moral panic.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, which ran the four-year survey, found community attitudes towards sexual violence were changing “very slowly” and that not everyone understood sexual assault is most likely to be committed by someone known to the victim.
The organisation’s chief executive, Padma Raman, said aligning consent laws – currently a patchwork across states and territories – could help shift attitudes. But she said tinkering with the criminal justice system would not solve all problems. “Part of shifting the attitude is continuing to have these conversations,” she said.
Greens senator Larissa Waters on Tuesday morning denounced what she decried as a “prudish outcry” over the Welcome to Sex book by Yumi Stynes and Dr Melissa Kang, which was taken off Big W shelves after it became the target of conservative media and was criticised by campaigners as a “graphic sex guide for children”.
“The experts are telling us and begging us to have age-appropriate, respectful sexual relationships education for kids, starting as early as you can, and going right through to university and beyond,” Waters said. “We need to stop this epidemic of sexual violence. We need to change the attitudes that underpin it.”
Advocate Chanel Contos said children and young people were otherwise learning about sex from porn, which was particularly damaging to young women.
“That’s basically like learning how to drive a car by watching Formula One. It’s extremely unsafe. It’s extremely dangerous, and it is mainly young women who are being subjected to metaphorical car crashes,” she told the inquiry.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.