One in five Irish teenage boys do not believe consent is always necessary before engaging in a sexual activity with someone, new research reveals.
The study, carried out by NUI Galway, involved more than 600 transition and fifth-year students.
It found a significant gap between the perceptions of consent held by males and females.
Consent was viewed as a necessary precursor to sexual activities by 93 per cent of teenage girls, compared to 79 per cent of teenage boys.
On verbal consent, 58 per cent of males and 67 per cent of females said it was necessary before sexual acts.
Fifty nine per cent of males and 61 per cent of females agreed that non-verbal cues were a valid form of consent some of the time.
While the majority of respondents were attentive to the presence of a “no”, more indirect comments or body language were not considered strong signals, according to researchers.
Many teenagers said their peers were less supportive of consent than they were themselves.
The report, which will be launched by the Ombudsman for Children Dr Niall Muldoon, found: “There was a significant gender gap in personal comfort with being sexually intimate with someone they had just met at a party, with females less likely to be comfortable than males. While 7 per cent of females were comfortable with intimate touching, 51 per cent of males said they were comfortable.
“There was also a significant gap among females between their personal levels of comfort with being intimate with someone they just met at a party, and how comfortable they thought other teenagers were with it.
“While 7 per cent of females were comfortable with intimate touching, 42 per cent of females agreed that other teenagers would be comfortable with this.”
