Consent is the permission a person gives for something to happen or the agreement to do something. 

Consent is:

• Considered
• Reversible
• Informed
• Specific
• Participatory

Consent is one of the most important topics you can teach your child in order for them to have positive, respectful and safe sexual health relationships as they develop into adults. As with all conversations, starting early and making sure they are age-appropriate will help your child understand the concept of consent by the time they hit their teenage years. 

These conversations can relate to other forms of consent when your child is younger to introduce the idea of consent. The more often you have conversations around the ideas of consent and, more specifically, sexual consent, the easier they will become.  

There are other forms of consent which are equally as important, including: 

• Medical consent: When a medical team explains the risk of a certain procedure before going ahead. For children and adolescents, this can be a guardian or the patient themselves if the treating doctors deem them capable of comprehending the nature of the consequences.
• Research consent: Before conducting an experiment or asking questions for research purposes, the research group must gain consent from the participants for all aspects of the study.
• Implied consent: By undertaking certain activities like contact sport, there is implied consent that someone knows the risks of being a part of that sport, for example, a boxer has implied consent if they happen to get hit by a punch in the boxing ring.

The most important reason to have ongoing discussions regarding consent with children is to empower them to make informed choices and to respect the boundaries of people around them. 

The benefits of having conversations around consent with your child include: 

• providing the tools to set healthy personal boundaries
• creates respect, empathy and consideration for others
• building independence and autonomy
• minimises shame around their body and how they express themselves
• creates a safe space and bond between your child and you as a parent or carer
• helping understand certain situations they may find themselves in. 

When your child learns their personal boundaries and can respect others, they can respond in the right way when there is disagreement following a behaviour. The beauty of teaching children about consent is that the message is the same for both parties. All people, in all situations, have the right to give or deny permission based on what they are comfortable with and where their personal boundaries lie.