Consent and The Law

This topic mentions sexual assault, if you’re finding it difficult to read about that right now, take a break! You can always revisit this topic later when you’re ready and take your time with it.

Consent is a topic that can feel pretty complicated once we start thinking about how the law gets involved. We’ll try and explore a bit of that here to clear things up some.

Age of Consent

There are specific laws around age when it comes to sexual activity, including who can legally have sex with who, legal and illegal age differences, and power dynamics. Read our article What Do I Need To Know About The Age of Consent to learn more.

Sexual Assault

There are many different forms of sexual assault, not just forced penetrative sex. Check out our article Sexual Assault to learn more, including what resources are available to survivors.

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out if a situation did involve someone’s consent being violated. Maybe it was just uncomfortable, awkward, or clumsy, or maybe someone was really forcing things to happen in a way the other person didn’t want. Talking about these experiences can be difficult because there is often a lot of doubt put on survivors who may be thought of as misinterpreting things. Trust yourself, and trust your gut; if something didn’t feel right there’s a good chance it wasn’t and you deserve to be supported and believed while you process this.