April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. But let’s be real: at this point, we don’t just need awareness. What we need is action.
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At Collective Shout, our fight has always been about dismantling the systems that allow sexual assault and exploitation to thrive. It’s about calling out the industries and institutions that profit from the degradation of women and girls. And it’s about confronting the cultural norms that groom boys into perpetrators and silence survivors into shame.
Here’s just some of how we’re doing that—and why this month, more than ever, it matters.
Exposing the Foundations of Abuse in Everyday Culture
In our submission to the National Inquiry into Workplace Sexual Harassment, we identified how pornography and media representations of women contribute to attitudes that fuel harassment, coercion, and entitlement. Our submission highlighted the need to address these root causes if we’re serious about creating safer environments for women.
We reinforced this position in our submissions to the National Summit on Women’s Safety and the Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Inquiry, where we called out the mainstreaming of sexual objectification and argued that prevention efforts must confront these cultural norms head-on.
Sounding the Alarm on Tech-Facilitated Abuse
Image-based sexual abuse, including AI-generated 'deepfake' pornography, is part of a growing wave of tech-driven abuse disproportionately targeting women and girls. In our submission to the UN’s Study on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, we exposed how digital platforms are enabling these violations—supercharging the same misogynistic behaviours we’ve been fighting offline for years. These are not fringe issues—they’re everyday weapons used against women and girls, with real-world consequences. We are pushing for urgent regulatory reform to hold tech companies accountable for turning a profit while women pay the price.
Fighting to Protect Kids from Pornography
You can’t raise a generation on violent porn and expect healthy relationships to magically happen. Our submission to the NSW Inquiry into the Impacts of Pornography exposed the harm: links to mental health issues, distorted body image, and the normalisation of coercion and violence in sex. After years of advocacy and direct engagement with lawmakers, Collective Shout helped put age verification on the national agenda. We spearheaded the campaign that led to the federal government committing to implement a roadmap for mandatory age checks on porn sites—a major win for child safety and a direct challenge to the porn industry’s free pass to profit from youth exposure.
Holding Big Tech Accountable
Our ongoing investigation into Instagram reveals how Meta profits from the sexual exploitation of underage girls—proving that kids aren’t just exposed to harmful content, they’re being targeted by it. It’s all part of the same ecosystem: tech platforms, pornography, and profit at the expense of children’s safety. Big Tech has shown time and time again that it will not regulate itself. That’s why Collective Shout continues to call for transparency, accountability, and serious consequences for platforms that enable abuse while cashing in on clicks. The safety of women and children should never be up for algorithmic trade.
The Power of Collective Action
When we show up, speak out, and stand together, we become impossible to ignore.
One of the clearest reminders? The thousands of people who rallied with us to demand accountability from platforms profiting off misogyny. More than 155,000 of you signed our petition to remove Andrew Tate’s violent, exploitative content from Spotify and SoundCloud. You shared it. You called it out. You made it clear this kind of content has no place in a world trying to end violence against women.
This isn’t just about one man. It’s about an entire system that amplifies and rewards harmful ideologies—granting influence, profit, and reach to those who perpetuate them. When we come together and speak with one voice, we have the power to challenge and disrupt that system.
That’s the strength of collective action. Change happens when communities refuse to stay silent.
Demanding Cultural Change—Not Just Legal Reform
It’s not just about laws (though they matter)—it’s about changing the culture that normalises sexual violence. In our work across campaigns, we’ve challenged the media, advertising and entertainment industries that serve up women’s bodies as objects and punchlines. If we’re serious about preventing sexual assault, we need to start upstream—long before violence becomes 'newsworthy'.
That’s why we also contributed to the UK Home Office’s Consultation on Violence Against Women and Girls, calling for global recognition of pornography, objectification, and prostitution as core drivers of violence.
This Month, Let's Go Beyond the Ribbon
Sexual Assault Awareness Month is a powerful opportunity to come together, speak up, and drive real, lasting change. Every voice counts. Every action matters.
Share our work. Call out the harmful content. Demand more from politicians, platforms and industries.
Because awareness without action is just noise. And women and girls have been silenced for long enough.
Download our shareable graphics here!
Want to do more?
- Visit collectiveshout.org/submissions to see all the ways we’re advocating for change.
- Follow us on socials and amplify the message this month.
- Fuel our movement by making a tax-deductible donation.
Let’s turn awareness into action—and action into lasting change
See also:
Input for UN study on technology-facilitated gender-based violence
“We have failed these girls”: Our campaigner Lyn Swanson Kennedy featured on ABC’s Four Corners
Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist in the media re age assurance for porn sites
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