Wagga women advocates slam government consent explainer

Sexual and consent education site The Good Society was launched by the federal government last week as part of their Respect Matters program.

The site uses a range of videos, podcasts and online learning modules to explain concepts of sex, consent and respect to secondary students, however some videos came under fire for using "baffling" metaphors instead of plain language.

Metaphors included a woman smearing a milkshake on a man's face to demonstrate 'moving the line' of respect and a man using a spear fishing gun to make a woman swim with sharks to represent coercion.

Wagga Women's Center's Julie Mecham said the video left her, and probably most viewers, more confused than when she started.

"I'm baffled by the tone and the context of those videos," Ms Mecham said.

"I see that they are trying to make it a conversation that has language that people can understand but I think it just adds confusion towards a range of approaches."

TEND Riverina's (formerly Wagga Family Support Service) child and adolescent sexual assault counsellor Serena Graham said that consent education is extremely important for students to be taught at school in an age-appropriate format.

"The delivery of sex education in schools that is age appropriate is an important opportunity to provide young people details and information about consent, the law, respectful relationships and physical development," Ms Graham said.

"When a young person discloses sexual assault and violence that they are believed and supported."

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She advised anyone looking for information on consent to contact 1800Respect or the Kids Helpline.

Ms Mecham said the content was not relatable for a teenage audience and called for educators to ditch the vague language.

"I would be really surprised if a young person in high school could relate to something like that and apply those concepts," she said.

"Why are we not using plain language, why are we not using language that young people would use or a setting that's more realistic?

"It doesn't have to be in relation to a sexual encounter but those concepts around my body and my choice and what I feel comfortable with and respect, building that into those education campaigns is vital."

Two of the most heavily criticised videos, the milkshake and spear fishing metaphors, were removed from the website on Tuesday.

Other modules still live use tacos to represent people, and a sports field map to represent zones of 'action'.

Ms Mecham said the "bizarre" metaphors simply muddied the waters of what should be a straightforward conversation.

"Lets stop making this a nasty taboo and just say most people are going to have sex throughout their lives from the age of consent and let's not make it more complicated with weird metaphors," she said.

State education ministers and activists have agreed with criticism of the series which was produced at a cost of $3.9 million dollars by a digital agency in Brisbane - almost half the allocated funds for the Respect Matters campaign.

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