Summary
Whether offline or online, the principle is the same: Consent must be clear, active, and respected.
HELP Auckland’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign -You Need To Ask – is grounded in one simple idea:
Ask. Listen. Respect.
At its core, this campaign is about changing how we understand consent in Aotearoa.
Right now, New Zealand law still allows situations where silence, hesitation, or fear can be explained away as consent. That doesn’t reflect the reality of how sexual violence happens – and that’s unsafe for all of us.
The standard should be clear: If you didn’t ask for affirmative consent – a clear ‘yes’, freely given every time – you didn’t get consent.
Why this matters now:
- Stronger consent laws: We support a shift to an affirmative consent model, where consent must be actively and freely given — not assumed.
- Stronger protections online: Technology is rapidly enabling new forms of sexual harm, including image-based abuse, deepfakes, and livestream exploitation.
These issues are connected.
Whether offline or online, the principle is the same: Consent must be clear, active, and respected.