A federal government video that attempted to use milkshakes to explain sexual consent has been taken down due to huge backlash. 

The Good Society is an educational resource aimed at teaching respectful relationships to young people.

Founder and director of End Rape On Campus Sharna Bremner says the video was far from useful.

“Young people don’t need cutesy metaphors to talk about sex,” she says. 

 “If we can’t mention the word sexual assault or rape, we can’t begin to address them.”

Curtin University women’s department officer Cassidy Pemberton thinks the video was insulting to the demographic it was intended for. 

“It was meant to be for Years 10-12 and they are definitely a lot smarter than this video gives them credit for,” she says. 

Ms Bremner thinks consent doesn’t need to be taught. 

“I think what we need to be teaching young people is to respect when a no is a no because people already know that,” she says. 

Curtin University has implemented a ‘respectful relationships’ module which is available through Curtin challenge. 

Ms Pemberton says everyone who starts at Curtin needs to complete this unit to avoid a sanction on their results. 

“It’s basically one that teaches the person doing it about consent and relationships,” she says. 

“While it’s not a perfect program it teaches the basics but also implies that there needs to be general knowledge already known.”

Ms Bremner says universities need to do more education about consent and they should take a broader community approach.

“Students are being educated in respecting one another and changing the culture that we live in, that enables violence,” she says. 

“Education needs to start from the very beginning of schooling and run right through universities.” 

Ms Pemberton thinks the discussion of consent in a video needs to be clear.

“A really cool metaphor, I’ve found, was coined by Planned Parenthood and it’s called FRIES,” she says.

Ms Bremner thinks a good consent video can be as easy as talking about what consent is and what the law says. 

“You can use plain language, you can say consent, you can say sexual assault, we’re all capable of having frank discussions about these things,” she says.