Sexual assault centre teaches boys to better respect girls

The head of Windsor's Sexual Assault Crisis Centre says teenaged boys need to be better educated on how to respect girls.

Lydia Fiorini says she has seen a spike in sexual assaults reported by teenaged girls since the Rehtaeh Parsons case in Nova Scotia appeared in the news.

She says part of the problem is young people's increased exposure to portrayals of sex through the Internet and social media.

Fiorini says many teenage boys take their cues about appropriate behaviour from movies, music and TV.

"They really don't have those cognitive abilities to really distinguish, 'Is this really how we treat females? Or is this not how we treat females?' So we really have to help them become critical thinkers, and understand that's not really what relationships are all about," Fiorini said.

"They’re exposed [to sexual content] earlier than ever before and they may not have the ability to make sense of it because developmentally they haven’t changed," she said of boys.

Fiorini said when asked  to find an example of a good, respectful relation in media during presentations, teen boys often struggle to do so. However, they can list several bad examples.

Fiorini said boys need to better understand the definition of consent. She said just because someone doesn't say no it doesn't mean they consent.

"They also have to understand that if someone is drunk or high they can’t give consent," Fiorini said.

She says 66 per cent of teenage sexual assaults involve alcohol or drugs.

"Because of the media, they get this idea that if a female is behaving badly, they can do whatever they want. And so because she was so drunk, they could do whatever they wanted, it didn't really matter; that her bad behaviour allowed them to be bad as well," Fiorini said.

The Crisis Centre has started a program called "Party Safe" to teach young people how to prevent incidents where sexual assault could happen.