"C" is for Consent

Consent means giving permission for someone else to touch you or for someone else to permit you to touch them. Consent is very important. If you want to hug or kiss someone, for example, you should ask them first. Likewise, if someone else wants to hug or kiss you, they should ask for permission.

Also, don't look through someone's purse, phone, or computer without their permission.

Respecting consent is a very important part of having friends and growing up. Your body belongs to you, and no one has the right to touch you without your consent.

The only exception might be if, for example, your parents suspected you were buying drugs online on your phone; they might look through your phone to check, without your consent, but they might want to tell you first to let you know.

If someone doesn’t respect your consent, it's very important to tell an adult you can trust to get help. If someone forces you to let them touch you, that is very wrong. Get help from a trusted adult immediately.

Do not ever go against someone's consent and touch their body, and never touch someone else when they are not going to be aware that you are touching them.

A good example of consent is when a boy and girl are dating and go to a party. Doing something he shouldn't do, the boy drinks alcohol and becomes intoxicated (drunk). The girl wants to kiss her boyfriend; should she? Her boyfriend has been drinking alcohol, is drunk, and cannot give consent to his girlfriend to kiss him. If the girl isn't certain she can get her boyfriend's consent, she should not kiss him.

It is 100% acceptable for someone to give consent and then change their mind at any time. Let us say a boy is kissing his girlfriend, and she has given him consent, but then, after kissing for a while, she wants to stop. The boy must respect her consent and immediately stop kissing her. It would not be right for the boy to get angry because she had previously agreed to kiss; he should respect her consent. If you change your mind, don't hesitate to say a firm "no" or "stop" to the other person and the other person must stop. If not, tell a trusted adult immediately. If the other person tries to convince you to give consent and you repeatedly deny it, then the person doesn't have consent.

If you feel uncomfortable with someone and/or the other person makes threats or forces you to do something, tell a trusted adult immediately to get help.

Sometimes adults groom kids by earning their trust, then ask them to do inappropriate and wrong things, and may tell them to keep it a secret or threaten them in some way. This is not at all your fault; the adult is in the wrong. Always tell a trusted adult right away to get help.

For example, on an online forum, a woman asks a boy to send naked pictures of himself to her. What should the boy do? He should not send naked pictures of himself and should immediately tell a trusted adult for help. The boy should not worry about disappointing the other person, the other person getting angry with them, or hurting their feelings. The adult is doing something very wrong and committing a very serious crime. Boys and girls should not worry about the adult getting in trouble.