Sex, young people and the law (education kit)

About this education kit

This kit helps educators teach young people about their legal rights and responsibilities to inform their choices about sex and relationships. The kit can support teachers to deliver the Department of Education and Training's Respectful Relationships curriculum.

The program covers four topics:

• Age of consent
• Consent
• Cyberbullying
• Sexting.

The teaching resource is designed to be used in combination with video content. It contains session plans, activities, legal background notes and other supporting information for each topic.

Watch the videos for this kit:

• Baker Boy
• Consent
• Tea Consent
• Sexting.

Changes to the law

Laws about sex and consent and about image-based offences have changed in Victoria. A new, affirmative consent model emphasises that:

• everyone has a responsibility to get consent before engaging in sexual activity
• everyone engaging in sexual activity must actively take steps to check that anyone else involved consents.

There are new ‘stealthing’ offences including:

• removal of or tampering with a condom during sexual activity without the other person’s consent
• intentionally not using a condom if the other person has given consent on the basis that a condom will be used.

There are also changes to Victorian laws about image-based abuse. In Victoria, you cannot take, send or share an intimate or sexual image or video of someone without their consent. You also cannot threaten to send or share an intimate image of someone. This includes images or videos that are digitally altered.

This edition of our Sex, young people and the law teaching resource contains information about these legal changes, plus resources and activities for educators to use to inform young people about laws on consent, age of consent, sexting and cyberbullying.

Order wallet cards

We have wallet cards with key information on all four topics:

• Age of consent
• Consent
• Cyberbullying
• Sexting, selfies and nudes.

Our Community Legal Education team can support you to deliver Sex, young people and the law. For more information, see Contact us, below.

Complete the eLearning module for teachers

We encourage educators to complete our Sex, young people and the law eLearning module before delivering these important legal messages.

Complete the Sex, young people and the law eLearning module.

How we developed this kit

We developed these resources with Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre. We are also grateful for the input of the Department of Education and Training, Domestic Violence Resource Centre of Victoria, South Eastern CEntre Against Sexual Assault (SECASA) and Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University.

Contact us

If you have questions about these resources or would like support to deliver education sessions, contact us:

Community Legal Education
Email: cle@vla.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 9269 0224 and ask for Community Legal Education