| Conducted by | Body Safety Australia and Respect Victoria |
|---|---|
| Date | October 2025 |
Overview
‘Your image belongs to you’: Young people, social media and image autonomy presents findings from an exploratory study that considers new avenues for practice, policy and research on what might help or inhibit children and young people to be safe online.
In this study, Body Safety Australia and Respect Victoria spoke with specialised facilitators who deliver respectful relationships education (RRE) to thousands of children and young people in Victoria each year. We used their insights to investigate two overlapping research questions:
How can respectful relationships educators’ observations about how children and young people talk about social media, gaming, online safety and image sharing help us to understand how to prevent image-based harmful sexual behaviours, including AI-generated harmful sexual behaviours?
In what ways might social media algorithms be understood as a contributing factor to gendered violence enacted by children and young people?
‘Your image belongs to you’ makes three important, new contributions to primary prevention research and practice evidence:
- the report introduces the concept of image autonomy – the idea that every person, no matter their age, has the right to decide how their image is taken and shared – into policy and research literature
- it explores how social norms modelled by adults may influence how children perceive respect and consent for image taking and sharing
- it examines the role of social media algorithms and algorithms on other online platforms as mechanisms that contribute to the likelihood and occurrence of technology-assisted harmful sexual behaviours (TA-HSBs) enacted by children and young people.
Read the report
Body Safety Australia and Respect Victoria acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples and Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waterways. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. We proudly acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and their ongoing strength in being the world’s oldest living cultures. We acknowledge the significant and ongoing impacts of colonisation and commit to working alongside First Nations communities to effect change. We recognise the ongoing leadership role of these communities in addressing and preventing family violence and violence against women, and will continue to work in collaboration with First Peoples to eliminate these forms of violence from all communities.
Body Safety Australia and Respect Victoria acknowledge the significant impact of family violence and violence against women on individuals, families and communities, and the strength, trauma and resilience of the children, young people and adults who have, and are still, experiencing this violence. We pay our respects to those whose lives were taken and to their family members and friends. We keep at the forefront in our minds all those who have experienced family violence or other forms of abuse, and for whom we undertake this work.
Report authors
- Kate Hepworth, Head of Research, Body Safety Australia
- Hazel Donley, Senior Adviser, Research and Translation
- Dr Stephanie Lusby, Manager, Research
Body Safety Australia and Respect Victoria would like to thank the respectful relationships education program facilitators who contributed their valuable knowledge and expertise to this project. We also wish to thank the following contributors:
Governance group: Dr Jenny Anderson, Deanne Carson, Jacquie O’Brien
Report contributors: Lauren Coutts, Dr Kim Powell
Study design workshop: Lauren French, Jay Jones
Reviewers: Dr Lewis Allan, Jackson Fairchild, Professor Nicola Henry, Dr Laura McVey
Copy editor: Vanessa Winter
Suggested citation
Body Safety Australia and Respect Victoria. ‘Your image belongs to you’: Young people, social media and image autonomy. Melbourne: Respect Victoria; 2025.
ISBN 978-1-76130-904-5 (pdf/word/online)
Public license details
With the exception of any images, photographs or branding (including, but not limited to the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo, the Respect Victoria logo or the Body Safety Australia logo), this work, ‘Your image belongs to you’: Young people, social media and image autonomy, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
The terms and conditions of this licence, including disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability are available at Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit Body Safety Australia and the State of Victoria, Australia, Respect Victoria as the authors, indicate if any changes have been made to the work and comply with the other licence terms.
To receive this document in another format, email contact@respectvictoria.vic.gov.au
Authorised and published by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne.
© State of Victoria, Australia, Respect Victoria October 2025.