Chanel Contos in Canberra to disrupt algorithmic misogyny

Posted on 13 August, 2026

She rose to national prominence as a university student who asked women to answer an Instagram poll if they had experienced sexual assault and receiving tens of thousands of responses.

Now Chanel Contos is a global leader on combatting sexual violence against women.

And she wants to stop it at the source, banning online algorithms which promote misogyny online, coming to Canberra next month to deliver a landmark address at the National Press Club.

Chanel says platforms are deliberately serving young men and boys a diet of misogynistic and extremist content designed to maximise engagement at any cost.

This is having real world consequences. Now, a teenage boy is the most likely perpetrator of child sexual abuse – a devastating title traditionally held by adult men. The evidence is damning: within minutes of signing up, accounts mimicking boys and men are bombarded with misogynistic content.

Chanel founded Teach Us Consent, the education and advocacy organisation she established after her 2021 petition calling for earlier, better consent education in schools went globally viral and resulted in mandated consent education in the Australian National Curriculum.

She is now spearheading a fight against the newest frontier in gender-based violence through Teach Us Consent’s campaign Fix Our Feeds, which has gathered widespread support from not only those concerned with violence prevention, but also men’s mental health; eating disorders; democracy; and social cohesion.

On Wednesday September 2, Chanel will be in Canberra to deliver a National Press Club Address in partnership with Women in Media. Open to all members of the general public, the lunchtime address is titled “Algorithmic funnels and division: the systematic promotion of outrage, misogyny, and radicalisation online”.

The campaign urges the Federal Government to require social media platforms to offer an option to “opt-in” to algorithms, giving users the autonomy to turn their algorithms on and off.

Chanel believes this is about informed and affirmative consent: control over data and our feeds. The European Union has paved the way with an “opt-out” policy but this would be a world first, bringing genuine consent to online experiences and would build on Australia’s

This single intervention would not only help prevent gender-based violence and the mainstreaming of radicalised misogyny, but also help people vulnerable to eating disorders, self harm and prevent exposure to racism, homophobia, mis and disinformation and other harmful content. Or, it could just be a tool for people wanting to spend less time on socials.

Recent polling from Teach Us Consent finds that regardless of political views, the vast majority (78 per cent) of Australians think social media users should have full control over what they see online.

In April, the Australian Greens moved the Online Safety Amendment (Fix Our Feeds) Bill 2026 with Senator Hanson-Young saying the Bill to amend the Online Safety Act would “put the power back in the hands of the user—not the big tech giants” describing big tech as “the new big tobacco – an industry that makes its profits off selling addictive, toxic and harmful products.”

To book tickets to enjoy lunch at the National Press Club and to hear Chanel’s address, go here.