Teach Us Consent

In February 2021, Chanel Contos posted an Instagram story asking followers if they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted by someone when they were at school. Within 24 hours, over 200 people replied ‘yes’.

Overwhelmed, but unsurprised by the response, Chanel launched a petition calling for more holistic and earlier consent education in Australia, as well as teachusconsent.com, a platform where people can share anonymous testimonies of sexual assault. Since the website’s launch, over 44,000 Australians have signed the petition, with more than 6,600 people sharing their stories of sexual assault on the website.

This petition and its accompanying testimonies will be presented to MPs around the country to advocate for holistic sexuality education earlier in the Australian school curriculum. As a collective, we call for sexual consent to be at the forefront of educational issues in your school, from a young age.

Chanel started the Teach Us Consent movement with the vision to demolish rape culture in Australia. Sick of constantly hearing about her friends’ experiences of sexual abuse, she is now calling for a mandated inclusion of consent education in Australian schools.

“I have lived in three different countries and I have never spoken to anyone who has experienced rape culture the way me and my friends had growing up in Sydney amongst private schools.”

Chanel believes that consent education should be taught earlier, more holistically, and include concepts such as slut shaming, toxic masculinity, sexual coercion, enthusiastic consent, and queer sex education.