The UK government has announced a new 'first of its kind' strategy to tackle sexual violence against women and girls after calling it a 'national emergency'.
The plans promise £20 million to go on new programmes, including lessons and teacher training.
Talking exclusively to LADbible, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and MP Jess Phillips said the strategy would also look more at the crackdown on violent 'strangulation' pornography and 'nudification' techniques used to create realistic fake nude images of individuals with artificial intelligence (AI).
Plans to tackle such issues will place a strong emphasis on early intervention and prevention with education for teachers and students, as well as online regulation and punishments.
Latest stats show that nearly 40 percent of teenagers in relationships are victims of relationship abuse, and over 40 percent of young men hold a positive view of Andrew Tate, an influencer who is accused of human trafficking and rape.
Exclusive figures from a survey of LADbible's audience also showed that only 27 percent of victims who have experienced physical abuse by a man or boy have reported it to the police.
81 percent of men say they have witnessed it is an important factor, while 69 percent said they didn't think people know what domestic abuse looks like beyond physical violence.
LADbible's For F**k's Sake campaign, which sparked an honest conversation about porn, showed that 77 percent of Gen Z consume porn, though 52 percent of young women believe it reinforces sexual dominance among men.
Speaking to LADbible as part of the launch of the new strategy, Starmer and Phillips said the aim is to prevent abuse before it happens.
Phillips, who has served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls since last year, acknowledged that the strategy is something they have to 'invent' and would involve specialist training for teachers to enable them to provide appropriate advice and education to young people.
She highlighted that 'over half' of those perpetrating child sexual abuse are aged between 10 and 17, with 14 being the average.
"The growing signs of sexually harmful behaviours, for example, amongst young men, is that if a child was showing an extremist view on any other point, actually teachers have a place where they can refer to, they don't on this," Phillips said, adding that they can't 'arrest their way out of this problem'.
"And so we're going to have to invent it, so we will pilot different schemes."
She went on to question: "Wouldn't it be much better to stop that behaviour in its tracks? And so we will invest in finding out what the very best interventions are. So what that will be to a teenager is being able to ask for help."
Starmer said that with the help of external experts and teachers, they 'want to roll it out in every secondary school' by the end of 2029.
"So that is a big ambition, never been done before, and I'm really pleased that this is the furthest reaching strategy on violence against women and girls that's ever been put out there."
The Labour leader said the government plans to use AI to tackle nudification and envisaged more being done for 'in terms of more accommodation for victims and survivors who just need a safe place to be'.
He also noted that having new specialist rape and sexual offences experts in 999 call centres is 'really important'.
"There are lots of adults who still don't know what these sorts of abuses are," Phillips said. "And so a fundamental part of the strategy is about how we change lots of views."
Featured Image Credit: WPA Pool/GettyTopics: UK News, Politics, Keir Starmer
Anish Vij