What is sexual harm?
Sexual harm is when someone has a sexual experience they don’t want. This might include being forced into any kind of sexual act, being used by someone else for sexual purposes without consent, or being exposed to sexual material without consent.
Sexual harm also includes sexual acts that began as consensual, but which someone changed their mind about, including at sex-on-site venues and kink parties. It can be perpetrated by people of any gender, on people of any gender. It can be perpetrated by strangers, people you know, hook-ups or partners, or within institutions. Sexual harm might:
- involve unwanted touching, penetration or being forced to touch someone else sexually
- include being threatened, pressured or coerced to do something sexual
- include verbal sexual harassment, sexual threats or language that humiliates you
- happen just once or many times
- involve one, two, or more people
- happen when someone is too drunk or out of it to give consent
- include verbal sexual harassment, sexual threats or language that humiliates you
Within Takatāpui and Rainbow communities, sexual harm might also include being targeted because of your identity, touching parts of your body you do not want touched during sex, being forced to show your sexual parts to someone, and being pressured to have sex in particular ways.
Online sexual abuse can be any type of sexual harassment, exposure, exploitation, or abuse that takes place through computers, phones or other communication devices.
Forms of online sexual harassment or abuse include:
- being threatened that sexual images will be shared without your consent
- being sent unsolicited sexual images, hateful or unwelcome sexualised comments
- taking and/or posting images for sexual purposes without consent
- being asked to send nude photos or videos or livestream sexual acts
- being exposed to sexual images including pornography without agreement
- sharing sexual images or videos of adults without the consent of everyone involved
- recording sexual acts on webcam without the consent of everyone involved
Child sexual abuse is any exposure of a child to sexual acts, sexual material or online sexual images, or sharing sexual images of a child online for sexual purposes or financial gain. Research shows Takatāpui and Rainbow children are often targeted for sexual abuse because we are different, and sometimes isolated from our families and whānau, which makes us easier to target. Grooming Takatāpui and Rainbow children and young people can involve using shame about our identities to make children and young people less likely to tell about what has happened.
