What is consent?
When educating young people about sex, it’s important that we highlight the importance of consent.
Consent is when everybody involved in a sexual experience agrees verbally or non-verbally to what is happening without threat, pressure, force or intimidation.
Educational programmes
The NZ Health Education Association have developed a resource to support learning around consent in the New Zealand curriculum.
Designed by MSD in collaboration with Nest Consulting, Love Creep: Understanding Coercive Control is a teacher resource designed to support kōrero with senior secondary students (ages 16–18) on the topic of healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviours. Through two 45-minute lessons, students explore the concept of coercive control—how it can begin subtly, how it differs from other forms of relationship harm, and why recognising patterns early is so important. With a focus on safety, inclusivity, and critical thinking, these lessons give rangatahi the language and tools to reflect on real-world scenarios, deepen their understanding of respectful relationships, and know where to seek help for themselves or support others.
Videos
We’ve created a video that you can use in class to navigate the conversation about sex and consent with students.
New Zealand Police have a short video explaining consent clearly, including when informed consent cannot be given.
The below video explains consent in a simple way using a cup of tea as an example. Easy to understand with clear messages, although the cup of tea analogy may not be suited for all.