After emphasising that sexual education can address limitations of the criminal justice system, Ms Marson said that it also needs to happen at all stages of life.

“Relationships and sexuality education needs to be lifelong, and it needs to start from a very young age. The research is clear that the more you speak to young people from an earlier age in an age-appropriate way, of course, about relationships, wellbeing, sexuality, consent, these sorts of topics, the more you do that, the later they’re likely to have their first sexual experiences and the less likely they are to have negative sexual experiences,” she said.

“We know that such education initiatives do need to start from an early age, and they need to be comprehensive. It’s not just the prevention of STIs and don’t get pregnant and don’t get sexually assaulted. It’s more comprehensive. It takes a positive, holistic wellbeing approach, and it equips young people with the information and skills they need to safeguard their own and each other’s sexual wellbeing when they get to that stage in their life.”

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Particularly when dealing with younger individuals, sexual education can often come from different avenues — often not in alignment with what they actually need early on, added Ms Marson.

“Young people are getting information and messages that are relevant to sexual wellbeing and relationships from a myriad of sources. Some of that information is going to be positive, and some of it is certainly going to be consistent with the attitudes and drivers of sexual violence that we would want to mitigate,” she explained.

“And what comprehensive relationships and sexuality education does and a broader community conversation about these things is it gives young people a framework within which to make sense of those messages that they’re getting from everywhere else. In this avalanche of information they get elsewhere, giving them information from trusted sources in an age-appropriate way, and skills to interrogate and analyse information they get elsewhere is more important than ever.”

To this end, having better education standards could lead to reduced instances of sexual violence and improved sexual wellbeing, as noted in Ms Marson’s book.

“I suppose that there are respectful relationships education programs out there designed to mitigate things like domestic violence that would have similarities with relationships and sexuality education. We may well see that,” she quipped.  

“But other things that I find quite interesting is that young people who have adequate comprehensive RSE tend to have better academic performance. You’ve got lower rates of truancy, so really interesting flow and effects from this kind of education when you’re doing it from a young age consistently and frequently.”

In terms of lawyers’ roles in pushing for increased sexual education as a prevention method for sexual violence, there are a number of ways individuals can be advocates — and contribute to broader social change.

“One key way is being more willing to have conversations, shame-free, respectful conversations about matters to do with relationships and sex in public spaces and with our peers and friends. Having these kinds of conversations is what will help cultivate or mitigate that shame and taboo that we know drives poor sexual wellbeing, sexual health, and even sexual violence,” Ms Marson added.

“That’s one key way. In terms of lawyers and the law generally, I do wonder about the right to sexual wellbeing, which I argue for in the book, and whether it is something that merits being enshrined in human rights legislation, for example. Some people argue that it is, the right to sex ed flows from existing human rights, but there are some key international bodies that suggest that it ought to be explicitly named as a right.”

Particularly within the work that she does, Ms Marson said that the importance of language that doesn’t trivialise or “reduce the significance” of sensitive topics is paramount — and rings true for the rest of the profession.  

“If we’re talking about genitals, intimate body parts, trying to avoid euphemisms where possible, particularly with young people because of what that communicates to them about our comfort in talking about body parts that they may need to be very comfortable talking about at certain points in their life,” she said.  

“That’s one example of how I say that we should try and have these shame-free conversations. And I don’t say that it’s easy because we’ve all grown up in a world that is drenched in shame about this stuff. I still get embarrassed talking about it sometimes, even though I do it every day for my career and because of my advocacy. It’s just about being conscious of it and doing what we can to try and shift that dial.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Katrina Marson, click below: