Legal knowledge that young people can use

Belgium’s 2022 legal reform clearly defines consent and criminalises digital sexual violence. But knowing the law exists and knowing how to use it are very different things. Most young people have never been taught what it says, leaving them unprepared to navigate pressure, boundaries, and online abuse and, at times, unfairly blamed for what they were never taught.

Consent Matters Belgium / Le Consentement Compte / Toestemming Telt is a bold, practical response. It goes beyond legal compliance to build a culture of respect, bodily autonomy, and mutual accountability. Pro bono lawyers step out of the courtroom and into schools as educators and allies, bringing law into its social role and helping shape the values young people carry into their relationships, communities, and civic lives.

Experience, critical thinking and community

The project rests on two convictions: young people learn best through experience and critical thinking, not passive instruction, and real change happens where they already are.

An experiential, legally accurate, age-appropriate curriculum brings consent law to life in Belgian secondary schools, helping adolescents understand their rights and responsibilities in physical and digital spaces. Pro bono lawyers deliver sessions directly in classrooms under clear child safeguarding frameworks, becoming visible allies in prevention.

Alongside the curriculum runs a public information campaign using comics, stickers, pamphlets, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to meet adolescents where they are. Survivor perspectives are central throughout. This is change built with communities, not handed down.