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Strengthening Safeguards for Young People in Victoria’s Consent Laws

Proposal Summary

Strengthen Victoria’s consent laws through close-in-age protections for 16–17 year olds and safeguards against exploitative relationships involving young adults.

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I propose reforming Victoria’s sexual consent laws to introduce stronger close-in-age protections for 16–17 year olds, while also creating enhanced legal protections for vulnerable young adults aged 18–21 who may be exposed to exploitative sexual relationships.

Under this model, 16–17 year olds would only be able to legally consent to sexual activity with someone who is less than 24 months older than them, while additional protections would apply for 18–21 year olds in situations involving grooming, coercion, dependency, manipulation, or significant power imbalance.

I believe Victoria’s current age of consent laws do not adequately reflect the developmental vulnerability of teenagers or the reality of exploitative age-gap relationships involving young people. While the law currently recognises abuse of authority in situations involving teachers, coaches, and carers, it does not sufficiently address the broader power imbalances that can exist between teenagers and significantly older adults.

A 16 or 17 year old may legally consent to sexual activity with a much older adult under current Victorian law, provided the older person is not formally in a position of authority. However, large age-gap relationships can still involve unequal emotional maturity, financial influence, social power, manipulation, or grooming behaviours even where no official authority relationship exists. Teenagers are still developing emotionally, psychologically, and neurologically, and may be particularly vulnerable to coercion or exploitation by older adults.

I believe introducing a close-in-age framework for 16–17 year olds would better reflect community expectations around safeguarding young people while still allowing normal peer relationships. A model based on an age gap of less than 24 months would provide clearer protections against predatory relationships while avoiding some of the arbitrary outcomes created by broad age categories. The focus of the reform is not to criminalise ordinary teenage relationships, but to reduce exploitative dynamics between minors and significantly older adults.

I also believe more protections are needed for vulnerable young adults aged 18–21. Although people over 18 are legally adults, many young people in this age group are still highly vulnerable to coercion, grooming, emotional manipulation, housing insecurity, financial dependence, and exploitative relationships with older adults. Brain development and executive functioning continue into the early twenties, and the law should better recognise this developmental transition period.

Rather than imposing blanket bans on relationships between adults, I believe the law should create stronger safeguards against exploitative conduct involving vulnerable young adults. This could include expanding definitions of grooming, coercion, dependency, and abuse of vulnerability, as well as recognising significant age and power imbalances as aggravating factors in sexual offence cases. These reforms would better prioritise prevention, safeguarding, and harm reduction for young people in Victoria.

Research in developmental psychology and neuroscience shows that adolescent brain development continues well into the early twenties, particularly in areas involving impulse control, decision-making, risk assessment, and vulnerability to social pressure. This supports the idea that teenagers and young adults may be more susceptible to coercion and manipulation in relationships involving significantly older partners.

Many jurisdictions internationally already use “close-in-age” or “Romeo and Juliet” consent models to provide additional protections for minors while avoiding criminalisation of normal peer relationships. These laws recognise that there is a meaningful developmental difference between relationships involving peers and relationships involving much older adults.

There is also increasing public awareness of grooming behaviours, coercive control, and exploitative relationship dynamics that may occur outside traditional authority relationships. Current laws focusing only on formal positions of authority may not adequately capture the broader forms of influence and manipulation that can exist in relationships involving vulnerable young people.

I believe Victoria has an opportunity to modernise its laws in a way that better reflects contemporary understanding of safeguarding, exploitation, and adolescent vulnerability while still respecting the autonomy of young adults.

• Age of consent
• Consent law reform
• Sexual violence prevention