Manager of Therapeutic Services Shureeka Alves interviewed on consent education for Nine News

Nine News journalist Allanah Sciberras sat down with Manager of Therapeutic Services Shureeka Alves, to discuss the worrying influence online figures and social media are having on our children and young people, and the importance role age-appropriate consent education plays in combatting harmful stereotypes. 
 

"Consent education can be a difficult topic to teach, with many outside factors influencing the actions of young men," Alves said.

"It's tricky because they [are] often influenced by people like Andrew Tate," Alves said.

"They are on these Reels and you hear it in schools, you hear them speak that women should be this way or that way. I feel like that really kind of influences what we see today in society.

"Some pornography depicts very gendered stereotypes of what women should be, males should be very dominant and [women] should be a particular way."

Read the article, Consent education is positive, but it's only 'one piece of the puzzle.

Later this year, Kids First will hold their Child Sexual Abuse and Harmful Sexual behaviours Conference, which will include content related to the effects of young people's exposure to pornography, and what we can do as professionals, advocates, educators, policymakers and parents.

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For almost two decades, Shureeka Alves has worked in varied roles supporting children, young people and families. For the last decade, she has worked as a practitioner counselling children and young people with victim experiences of sexual abuse, and/or who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviours, as well as support their families through Kids First's Sexual Assault Counselling and Prevention Program (SACPP). Currently, Shureeka is Manager of Therapeutic Services at Kids First Australia.

Working hand-in-hand with young people, SACPP and our Innovation and Design team has created an evidenced-based consent education platform, ‘To Future Me’ which teaches on the topics of sex, consent, grooming behaviour and gender in an age-appropriate digital format.

Shureeka is currently on a six-month part time secondment contract at Sexual Assault Services (Victoria) to explore cross sector projects with a view to improving outcomes for clients. These projects include Standards of Practice and Waitlist Management.