One in seven young people receive requests for sexual content during their online activity. Clearly, the digital age has presented a new set of challenges for young relationships.

Over time in their counselling sessions with young people, our Sexual Abuse Counselling & Prevention Program team saw a trend in the number of clients experiencing sexual exploitation and grooming. In addition, clients expressed confusion around what was ‘normal’ and ‘expected’ in their relationships.

Kids First saw an opportunity to bridge the gap between existing school curriculum that covered sex education and cyber safety separately, and bring these together. Building on our therapeutic expertise and experience in developing primary prevention programs, Stand Up! was born.

Stand Up! has been piloted in nine schools with 400 Year 8 students as a four-session program. Content covers identifying risk scenarios in healthy and unhealthy relationships, developing real life strategies to deal with risks of sexual exploitation and grooming, and knowing who they can turn to if they need support.

With a pilot showing significant interest from schools, positive feedback from teachers, and its effectiveness in connecting with students, we would like to make Stand Up! accessible to more young people.