Asking For It

3 X 1 HR |  2023 | PRODUCED FOR SBS

See What You Made Me Do was one of SBS’s most successful factual programs in 2021, and investigative journalist Jess Hill returns to SBS with Asking For It, a bold new documentary series exploring why consent is vital – and what happens when consent is missing, leaving nothing to divide sex from sexual assault.   

Jess Hill joins the advocates driving change across Australia. They have lifted the rug and insist we peer at the mess with them – an epidemic of sexual violence impacting millions of Australians – many of them young people, assaulted by other young people.  Jess asks what needs to be done to shift us from a rape culture to a consent culture? 

We investigate where and how sexual assault takes place – from aged care to schoolyards and run an audit on Australia’s legal system when it comes to sexual assault. Why is it most victims will never report an assault, and most perpetrators will never face justice?

Jess goes travelling into the ‘manosphere’ where online platforms have become new staging grounds for sexual offenders, and reveals why even specialist investigators struggle to contain their reach. She asks if it’s possible to make our most vulnerable communities safer via consent education and meets the self-styled teachers of consent who are already shifting attitudes and enriching communities.