Courtney alleges she was raped by a classmate when she was six years old. Now she’s taking action

More than 2600 reports of “concerning incidents” of a sexual nature between students have been reported at Victorian state schools in the past three years, as experts warn of a crisis in gender-based harmful behaviour.

Figures obtained under freedom-of-information laws show there were 2645 incidents recorded by state schools between January 2023 and August last year.

A rise in incidents was recorded in 2024 compared with 2023 in primary, secondary and prep-to-year-12 schools, and the figures continued to climb in the eight months of 2025 for which data was released.

Over that 2025 period, there were 817 incidents reported, at least 368 of them in primary schools.

“Peer-to-peer incidents of a sexual nature” refers to student-to-student behaviour considered inappropriate, harmful or concerning and recorded by schools in line with department policy.

The severity of each incident can depend on age. A problematic incident for five to nine-year-olds might be continually rubbing their genitals in the presence of others, while a harmful behaviour could be grooming other children or forcing them to play sexual games. “Sextortion”, often involving online blackmail, can be a problem among older students.

More incidents have been recorded since 2022, when strengthened reporting systems were introduced, but that earlier data was not made available.

Dr Gemma McKibbin, a senior research fellow in the University of Melbourne’s Department of Social Work, said the 2645 incidents reported were probably a vast under-representation of concerning sexual behaviour in schools.

She said researchers were seeing a crisis in gender-based harmful sexual behaviour, whereby adolescent boys were sexually harassing, assaulting and exploiting adolescent girls or non-binary young people.

“I don’t think that schools have quite worked out how to manage the kind of group dynamics that fit into that form of harmful sexual behaviours, such as the manosphere and hypermasculinity, exposure to pornography,” McKibbin said.

Courtney Livingston alleges she was raped by a classmate when in year 1. He had exposed himself in class before asking her and another girl to meet him and another boy at a basketball court, where she says the boys abused the girls.

Now 24, she is suing the State of Victoria in the Supreme Court, claiming her school, Redan Primary, on the rural-urban fringe near Ballarat, failed to protect or supervise students in 2008, when she alleges the abuse occurred.

A writ filed on July 8 states, “there was a not insignificant risk that students in primary school may be sexually abused by other students”.

According to the 2023 Australian Child Maltreatment Study, adolescent boys are the most likely to inflict child sexual abuse in Australia. Of the people surveyed, 18.2 per cent said they had experienced child sexual abuse perpetrated by an adolescent, compared with 11.7 per cent who said an adult had abused them.

The release of the fresh data comes amid renewed concerns that boys are increasingly involved in sex crimes and under the influence of the manosphere.

Three students – a 13-year-old and two 14-year-olds, from top Sydney private boys’ school Scots College have been charged with aggravated sexual assault after allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in an alley on July 22. The teens have been granted bail on strict conditions, as the school faces concerns over a perceived culture of misogyny.

McKibbin said that across the board there had been an increase in young people non-consensually sharing peers’ nudes, setting up “slut-shaming hubs” and creating nude deepfakes.

Last month, Dr Sara Meger, of the University of Melbourne’s School of Social and Political Sciences, published the report Misogyny, Online Radicalisation, and Youth Extremism in Australia, which found 13 to 17-year-olds were more likely to hold hostile views towards women than adults were, and that was reflected in classroom behaviour. Misogynistic attitudes were held by
34.8 per cent of boys in that group compared with 23.4 per cent of Boomer men.

An Australian Federal Police spokesperson said most sadistic online exploitation victims were girls aged between 11 and 17. Most offenders were boys and young men aged between 12 and 24.

“Limited public awareness of sadistic online exploitation, coupled with child and youth victims being reticent to report the true breadth of their online experience to strangers, means incidents are often not recognised as even being extortion-related,” the spokesperson said.

“We believe this crime type is underreported as victims may not view themselves as victims.”

Associate Professor Matt Tyler of Monash University said violent pornography was playing a role in the growth of child-on-child harm, with young people able to access it despite age verification requirements.

“Often young people are ashamed or fearful of seeking help,” he said.

A Department of Education spokesperson said every incident was taken extremely seriously and government schools had clear and strict processes to respond to problem incidents, including supporting students, working with families and calling in police when appropriate.

McKibbin said it was important parents and carers understood the difference between normal, problematic and harmful sexual behaviour. Children who disclosed incidents needed to feel believed and supported and that action would be taken to make abuse stop.

Schools, she said, should prevent children’s harmful sexual behaviour through whole-of-school sexual safety education, identify it using a traffic light tool, look for red flags and respond using reporting protocols.

“It is a balancing act – victims must be supported and young people who harm do best when they are responded to therapeutically rather than through punishment,” she said. “Severe perpetration may require police intervention, however.”

Courtney Livingston described her primary school’s response as horrific, saying all four children involved were given timeouts at recess.

“As a six-year-old who already felt ashamed, being punished after what had happened only kind of reinforced that shame, and I carried that feeling with me for so many years,” she said.

Arnold Thomas & Becker lawyer Madison Duffy said liability for peer-on-peer abuse shifted to the school if staff failed in their duty of care, including ignoring warning signs, lacking clear safeguarding rules or failing to supervise students properly.

“We allege the [Redan Primary School] failed its duty of care through inadequate supervision, that the harm was foreseeable, and the lack of supervision directly resulted in the incident and the injury,” she said.

Livingston said she felt she had been carrying the weight of what happened for nearly 20 years.

“While others may have been quick to close that chapter in my life, I never could, and it never ended for me,” she said. “I feel like no one protected me when I was six, and as I’ve gotten older, I felt an obligation to stand up for my younger self.

“It’s about taking back some of the power that was stolen from me.”

The trial is set for next year. The state government is yet to file a defence.

If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or kidshelpline on 1800 55 1800.

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