A NSW Government roundtable held on Friday, September 4, identified online environments, social media algorithms, pornography and technology-facilitated abuse as important influences on young people’s attitudes towards gender, consent and relationships.
The Government’s priorities include expanding respectful-relationships education, helping parents and trusted adults discuss online influences with young people, improving responses to online misogyny, and strengthening prevention and support for victim-survivors. The roundtable will contribute to the development of a new NSW Sexual Violence Plan, due in 2027, as part of a broader, whole-of-community approach to preventing sexual violence.
The NSW Government is right to recognise that preventing sexual violence requires more than responding to incidents after they occur. Given that young people are the intended beneficiaries of policies addressing consent, relationships and online sexual culture, they need to play a meaningful role in shaping those policies.
Where were they in this roundtable discussion?
Engaging young people in these discussions is essential. Such a process requires engaging young people in authentic dialogue that is involving them in identifying problems, co-creating responses and evaluating whether those responses will work or not.
Why? Because young people are arguably best placed to understand consent, communications, gender expectations, peer pressure and respectful relationships in their everyday lives, which, given the generational differences, may differ from the perspectives of ministers and professionals. If we were to engage young people in this way, it is important to recognise that shame, cultural mores, asymmetrical power and concern about judgement may impede young people from speaking openly. Without addressing these barriers, youth participation risks being perfunctory.
Authentic dialogue requires more than inviting girls and boys to express their views. Expert facilitation is vital in creating communitas, a sense of shared humanity, where young people can engage safely, challenge assumptions and listen to perspectives different from their own. Governments could support this through youth advisory groups, facilitated workshops and anonymous forms of consultation, with particular attention given to those whose voices that are less likely to be heard.
It is imperative to measure the outcomes of such dialogue and not through the usual post-event evaluations. The value of authentic dialogue requires governments to demonstrate to young people how their contributions have influenced policy decisions, now or in the future. Without linking their participation to outcome, dialogue risks becoming just another talk fest with no follow through.
For a policy genuinely intending to change young people’s understanding of consent and relationships, the participation-outcome link is crucial. If governments want to understand how attitudes towards sex, gender and relationships are formed, it’s important to listen to the very people, who are experiencing or may experience those influences firsthand. Young people should not simply be the subjects of sexual-violence prevention policy; they need a genuine voice in co-creating what that prevention looks like.
