• NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has defended his suggestion of a consent app to help deal with sexual assaults.
• At a press conference, he responded to backlash over his suggestion and pointed to the pressure already on the courts.
• “Perhaps it’s also an avenue to try to bring clarity and some respect to women,” Fuller said.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

If apps can bring people together, perhaps they can prevent sexual assault, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller declared after facing backlash over his suggestion of a “consent app”.

“Technology brings people together to find love, clearly it is. Perhaps it’s also an avenue to try to bring clarity and some respect to women,” Fuller said at Thursday’s press conference.

The issue of sexual assault has been high on the national conversation for the past few weeks, after former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins said she was raped by a male colleague at Parliament House in March 2019.

Since then, several more allegations have surfaced against politicians and political staffers, and the March 4 Justice marches across Australia calling for an end to sexual violence against women.

Commissioner Fuller said that his suggestion of a consent app was more about preventing people from entering the justice system, rather than being used as evidence in court or as an investigative tool for police.

While he acknowledged “technology doesn’t solve everything,” Fuller said as people use technology more to meet, a tech platform could also help people record consent when engaging with people.

He said he would not expect the app to be accessed and used by police, but rather serve as a private record of consent between two parties.

“The justice system doesn’t seem to be helping the offenders or the victims in these matters,” Fuller said.

15,000 women come forward every year to lodge a sexual assault complaint, “and that’s growing exponentially every year,” he said. There is just a 2% rate of prosecution.

“This is the single crime problem that we are really struggling with,” Fuller said, adding he thinks the criticism he has seen “is good” and wants his statements to continue the conversation about how to better manage issues of consent.

“If the app never eventuates, or eventuates in 10 years, to me that’s not that important, it’s about ‘what are the other solutions out there,’” he said.

How the Police Commissioner came to suggest a consent app

Commissioner Fuller floated the idea of a mobile phone app to record sexual consent between two partners on Thursday morning during an appearance on Sydney radio station 2GB.

He said the app could be run by a private company, and that he came up with the idea after using coronavirus tracing apps to check into venues during the pandemic.

“There is no implied ­consent. It needs to be positive consent. How do we do that in this day and age? One option is with technology,” Fuller said.

“Intimate violence against particularly women is on the increase and it is increasing every year … and consent is a common theme.”

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