Young Australians say sexual strangulation has become so normalised it is no longer considered a kink.
A 2024 study revealed nearly 60 per cent of young people have experienced strangulation during sex.
Warning: this story contains details readers may find distressing.
Laura Crozier can't believe the conversations she used to have in high school about sex.
Specifically, sexual strangulation, commonly referred to as choking.
A proud bisexual woman, Ms Crozier said strangulation had become "just a part of the playbook of a sexual encounter".
University student Elaquare Spencer said that for her and her friends, strangulation was framed as a sexual preference.
For Talon, a heterosexual man in his early 20s, strangulation was a way to play with power dynamics.
According to Maree Crabbe, a violence prevention educator and co-founder of the Breathless campaign, there has been a large increase in depictions of sexual strangulation in television, films and popular culture.
Ms Crabbe said strangulation had become such a pervasive part of sexual culture that even without watching porn, the expectation to engage with it was emerging in the bedroom.
When Ms Crozier first began exploring her sexuality, she said there was a gap between her idea of pleasure and the sex she agreed to have.
As a young man who has consensually strangled partners during sex, Talon said he felt like he was following a script expected of him.
Ms Crabbe said it was most common for men and boys to strangle, and for women, girls and sexual and gender diverse people to be strangled.