Published: 6:32pm, 13 Nov 2025Updated: 6:39pm, 13 Nov 2025
More than 70 per cent of Hongkongers have said removing condoms without consent during intercourse is a form of sexual assault, while less than 1 per cent of surveyed victims have reported the matter to police, according to a poll by an NGO.
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Executive director Doris Chong Tsz-wai of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women on Thursday urged authorities to create a statutory definition of consent to delineate the scope of protection for victims whose wishes were violated during sex.
She noted that other jurisdictions, such as Singapore, already had laws covering this type of act.
“The most important issue is in the vocabulary; if a victim could not describe what happened to them, it’s hard for them to identify that they had experienced sexual violence and subsequently seek help at the relevant organisations,” Chong said.
The survey looked at “stealthing”, which refers to a sexual partner surreptitiously removing a condom during intercourse that was consensual under the promise of safe sex.
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Under Hong Kong law, the legal responses to stealthing remain a grey area. The city has no dedicated laws criminalising the act, while the current legislation against rape and indecent assault may not be able to categorise this type of behaviour.