Most Australians still can’t define what consent is. Non-consensual acts were being reinforced everyday, and it was happening on our screens.

We needed to shift attitudes and make a cultural impact from the grassroots level.

Our innovation, a (C) classification to call out “Lack of Consent” in films and shows, is a world first. While we classify acts like violence, no country in the world classifies acts like forcibly kissing someone, or having sex with a person saying “no”.

Academic research has shown that when such acts are depicted in funny or romantic films, audiences normalise them in real life. 3 in 5 Australians couldn’t recognise these acts as non-consensual in films.

We’ve now partnered with the Australian Government to implement our classification nationwide in 2023.

Our classification doesn’t just educate viewers - it disrupts the normalisation of these acts, and changes consent culture both on screen and off.

Consent Labs are Australia’s leading experts on consent, having taught over 60,000 Australians about affirmative consent through peer-reviewed workshops. They work to change our culture around sexual consent from a grassroots level.

Despite new consent laws passing nationwide, two-thirds of Australians still can’t define sexual consent.* Government ads tried but failed to make a difference. We needed a fresh approach in order to make a cultural impact.

We realized that films and TV, our daily entertainment, constantly depicted sexual coercion and assault, but these acts were normalized` in comedic or romantic contexts. As a result, 3 out of 5 viewers were unable to recognise these acts.*

We wanted to empower Australians to recognise non-consensual acts on a mass scale - both on screen and off.

* 65% of Australians can’t define consent (Consent Labs – Pureprofile; July 2022)

*57% of Australians can’t recognise non-consensual acts in films (Consent Labs – Pureprofile; July 2022)

The Me Too movement sent shockwaves through the world. In Australia, it sparked conversations that challenged entrenched attitudes around consent. Activists and politicians joined forces to successfully pass progressive new consent laws.

However, cultural attitudes remained out of step with our progressive reforms. A government consent campaign failed to make a difference*. Activists like Chanel Contos became household names, but also faced backlash. We may have changed our laws, but we were missing the bigger picture: non-consensual behaviour was reinforced every day in our favourite films and shows. Explicit sexual violence in film is easy to identify as wrong. However when non-consensual sexual acts occur in romantic or lighthearted films, they’re harder for viewers to recognise, as they “become an accessory to (the funny or romantic themes). So it has a trivialising effect, a sanitizing effect.”** And academics found that when we normalised these acts on-screen, we normalised them in our lives.

In order to impact our culture we needed to reach millions of Australians on a grassroots level, doing what they loved - watching films.

“Consent campaign lambasted for bizarre milkshake video and misinformation”, The Guardian, April 2021

”How teen comedies normalize sexual assault”, Prof. Sujata Moorti, Chicago Tribune, October 2018

#ClassifyConsent is our campaign for the first-ever film classification (“C”) to call out lack of consent.

Lack of consent is normalised every day, and Australians collectively spend 780,000,000 hours a year watching it. 3 in 5 people can’t recognise non-consensual acts in films. Academics have even studied how the more we depict non-consensual acts as lighthearted or romantic on screen, the less seriously we take consent in real life.*

Our classification is simple: just like with “violence”, it informs viewers of “lack of consent” in content before they watch. But it’s also powerful, turning entertainment into education each time it’s used.

With a single “C”, every use of the classification in a film or show empowers millions of viewers to stop normalising “lack of consent”, and start recognising it on screen and off.

* Prof. Julia Lippman, University of Michigan; Prof. Sujata Moorti, Middlebury College

Previous, government-led attempts had failed to impact youth culture around consent. Consent Labs’ primary audience are people aged 12–24. Our strategy was to meet them where they lived: on social media. We launched our campaign on TikTok, exposing the non-consensual acts in famous films.

Supers on each scene unpacked why these moments lacked consent, and each post, watched millions of times, became its own educational asset and organically drove conversation with media that young people loved.

Consent education was embedded into every touchpoint of the campaign, resulting in immediate cultural impact.

The more unexpected the scenes, like a cartoon or a romance, the greater the response. Our strategy even drove Australians (including journalists) to share hundreds of more film examples.

Where non-consensual acts on-screen had previously been invisible, a simple (C) made them unmissable. Our goal was to create enough pressure to make the government adopt our film classification.

To launch our campaign for a new classification, we posted famous film moments with “lack of consent” on TikTok, educating through entertainment and reaching an audience of millions. From forcibly kissing someone to secretly removing a condom, each scene taught viewers to recognise consent on screen and in life.

Every touchpoint of the campaign communicated the movement to #ClassifyConsent, and all assets pointed people to our website where thousands pledged their support for the classification, downloaded toolkits, and even submitted more scenes.

Our campaign hijacked the most popular entertainment in the world to expose how we normalise non-consent. Widespread coverage in global mainstream media led to our official partnership with the Australian Classification Board.

We’ve now authored the official government guidelines for using the (C) Lack of Consent classification (the first of its kind) to be implemented nationwide in 2023 - changing our lens on consent, every time we press play.

With zero media spend, our TikTok posts got over 6 million views and the campaign exploded in global media. With an estimated reach of over 200 million, we used pop culture to spark a cultural awakening.

Our government petition (launched via our website) garnered thousands of signatures and inspired people to submit hundreds of more scenes that contained non-consensual acts. Even media suggested their own examples*.

Soon Netflix had endorsed the classification; and 71% of Australians supported it**.

Our ultimate goal has now been realized: we’ve partnered with the Australian Government to officially implement the world’s first “lack of consent” classification across our screens in 2023 - changing the way millions see consent, everyday.

* “Ad of the Week”, Campaign Asia, “Will James Bond be cancelled?”, Sydney Morning Herald, Harper’s Bazaar

** 71% of Australians want a “lack of consent” classification as law (Consent Labs – Pureprofile, July 2022)

Consent Labs is Australia’s leading not-for-profit group on consent, having taught over 60,000 Australians about affirmative consent through peer-reviewed workshops. They work to change our culture around sexual consent from a grassroots level.

Despite new consent laws passing nationwide, two-thirds of Australians still can’t define sexual consent.* Government ads tried but failed to make a difference. We needed a fresh approach in order to make a cultural impact.

We realized that films, our most popular entertainment, constantly depicted sexual coercion and assault, but these acts were hidden in comedic or romantic contexts. Troublingly, 3 out of 5 viewers were unable to recognise these acts.*

We wanted to empower Australians to recognise non-consensual acts on a mass scale - but without a traditional, top-down approach.

* 65% of Australians can’t define consent (Consent Labs – Pureprofile; July 2022)

*57% of Australians can’t recognise non-consensual acts in films (Consent Labs – Pureprofile; July 2022)