All children need to learn about sexual consent – it’s their right

Half the female victims of sexual assault are under 16. Rape victims are most likely to be aged 15 to 19. Schools need to teach young people about healthy relationships

California rejects plan to force porn actors to wear condoms, dental dams and goggles

Porn star Ela Darling tells regulators that performers could think for themselves and there was no ‘big daddy porn boss’ telling them what to do

Q&A: The Kentucky lawmaker who wants men to ask wives’ permission to take Viagra

State representative Mary Lou Marzian hopes tongue-in-cheek bill will make her male counterparts reconsider how laws police women’s bodies and sexualities

Spiky Australian grass the key to making better condoms, say researchers

Fibres from spinifex are being used to make condoms more reliable and as thin as a human hair, according to University of Queensland research

Family planning is ‘critical link’ in eradicating poverty

Reproductive health experts want more access to modern contraceptives to prevent population bulge that would undermine efforts to tackle global poverty

A sex toy for women’s health: dildo designer talks the joy of conception

Stephanie Berman is among a growing number of entrepreneurs exploring new technologies for a market that is no longer taboo

Something for the weekend, sir? The latest in sex tech

You can control everything from your heating to your exercise routine with an app, so why not bluetooth your sex life? Robina Gibb reports on the latest tech from the Sexual Health Expo in Los Angeles

‘Urban myth’ that lesbian women don’t need pap smears is a health risk – study

University of Sydney study finds that lesbian women are being tested less for virus that can cause cervical cancer and sexually transmitted disease in general

10% of female US college students experienced sexual assault in 2015

New study found that 4% of students had been raped during that academic year and more than 5% had encountered sexual battery

The secret sexual health doctor’s diary: ‘The waiting room is bursting at the seams’

A registrar working in a sexual health clinic offers a snapshot of her working week, from advising a 16-year-old girl with a newborn baby to introducing baffled students to the vaginal ring