School curriculums were changed in 2023 following a mandate to provide consent education after youth advocate Chanel Contos pushed for the change.
Ms Contos, 26, founded Teach Us Consent four years ago after an Instagram post went viral and alerted her to the dire need for consent education in Australian schools.
While the mandate was a huge milestone, Consent Labs co-founder Angelique Wan said much of the burden had landed on teachers to roll out the new curriculum when they may not have received training to deliver it in line with best practice.
"Just because (consent education) is in the curriculum does not mean the work is done," she told AAP.
"We need to ensure it is delivered in a way that is relevant to young people and in order to do that you need to lean on experts and upskill teachers and parents to have those conversations."
Education on consent and respectful relationships has been widely linked to preventing sexual violence.
It also helps to build empathy in young people, improve sexual health outcomes and result in people being more likely to use condoms and less likely to have unwanted pregnancies or contract a sexually transmitted disease.
But a growing trend among young people to return to gender norms with many turning to the "manosphere" and following "tradwives" on social media demonstrates an ongoing need for consent education to stay relevant.
Specifically, young boys needed to have a safe space to explore masculinity, Ms Wan said.
"There is a lot of confusion among young boys about what it means to be a man, away from the traditional stereotypes," she said.
"We want to use education to counter deeply ingrained beliefs and attitudes and we also know that rigid gender stereotyping can lead to violence."
As for whether consent education was different for male and female students, Ms Wan said the message was that all genders needed access and understanding of consent and respect.
"We need to role model that everyone, regardless of their gender, needs to be having these conversations," she said.
"It's also not a one-size-fits-all because there are nuances like cultural or LGBTQI diversity within schools that need to be taken into account when designing the curriculum."
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