From an Instagram story to a petition that garnered 44,000 signatures and eventually the launch of an NGO, Chanel Contos has championed change in consent curriculum across the nation. Now, with $3.5 million in grant funding, Contos and her 10-strong team are distributing social media resources that aim to reduce violence against women and children.
Forbes Australia’s inaugural 30 Under 30 list is out now. Tap here to see the full list.
It’s 2021, and Chanel Contos is asking her Instagram followers a simple question: Have you, or has someone close to you, been sexually assaulted at school? In 24 hours, more than 200 people responded: Yes. In the end, almost 7,000 people sent in testimonies describing behaviour that constituted rape. Almost none were reported.
It’s this poll, which Contos posted while studying for a master’s degree in gender and education at University College London, that set in motion what would become Contos’ career in consent education.
Today, Contos is at the helm of the NGO Teach Us Consent, which launched as a petition to mandate consent education in the Australian National Curriculum in February 2021 and garnered 44,000 signatures.
“When I posted the Instagram story, my dream outcome would have been if my old school and nearby schools changed. I never thought beyond that. The petition – it felt so silly, at first,” Contos says.
In the months after the petition, Teach Us Consent the organisation began working with the national curriculum authority, and Victoria announced a state-wide mandate. Months later, New South Wales agreed to improve consent education, and Queensland mandated consent education from age 10. By February 2022, it presented at a meeting of the Ministers of Education – which unanimously agreed to mandate consent education in the National Curriculum.
“A minister’s advisor called me after the policy change, and in the end, it wasn’t even controversial. And that is a testament to true cultural change,” she says.
That was partly because of the backdrop of the time, Contos says. In 2021, Liberal Party junior staffer Brittany Higgins alleged to two media outlets that she was raped in then-Defence Industry Minister Senator Linda Reynolds’ office. Grace Tame, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault, won Australian of the Year the same year.
“Australia was having its ‘Me Too’ movement,” Contos says. “We had a moment, and it meant that people were ready to have these conversations.”
In 2023, a $3.5 million grant from the Australian government came through for Teach Us Consent.
The team began creating social media resources aimed at 16-to-25-year-olds, co-designed by youth and developed by experts, to put positive messaging on young people’s screens.
In the meantime, she is embarking on a master’s degree in public policy at Oxford in London. “Hopefully, I’ll be even more equipped to keep doing Teach Us Consent after this,” she says. But the organisation will continue to exist after it’s funding lapses next July, Contos stresses, with three focus areas: content creation, partnerships, and research, policy and advocacy.
“We want to make sure we’re including the voices of young people and using the fact that we’re such a trusted brand amongst youth in this organisation.”
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here.
Buy a copy of Forbes 30 under 30 Magazine or tap here to become a Forbes member.
