Universities
Sexual harassment and violence among students
The House Chat is a five-minute simulation. Students follow a house group chat during and after a party, and decide what to do as things go wrong.
Runs in a phone browser. No login or download. It contains a sexual assault at a student party, seen through a group chat. Nothing explicit is shown and the story is fictional.
00:41
Sunday 15 March
What students do
- Read the chatMessages arrive one by one, as they would on the night.
- DecideA housemate takes a drunk student upstairs. A video is shared. The group asks everyone to delete the chat. At each point the student chooses what to do.
- See what it didEach choice changes three things: their standing in the house, whether they did right by her, and their own risk with the police and the university.
- Learn what to doIt ends with the 5 Ds of stepping in and what to do if this happens for real.
The decisions follow Latané and Darley’s steps for bystander intervention: notice it, see it as an emergency, take responsibility, know what to do, and act.1
Phone for every student. VR for some.
Every student: phone or desktop
The House Chat runs in a browser and takes five minutes, so it can be given to every student.
Some students: virtual reality
In VR a person goes through a moment like this in someone else’s body. Kiin’s VR harassment training is set in a workplace today. A student version would be built with a partner university.
Kiin’s founders study this in virtual reality. One study looked at when bystanders step in during a violent incident.2 In another, men who experienced sexual harassment from the woman’s position gave about half as many shocks in a later obedience test as men who had only been part of the group harassing her.3
What regulators ask universities to do
England
Since 1 August 2025 the Office for Students’ condition E6 has required universities to set out how students are informed and staff are trained on harassment and sexual misconduct. Its guidance says training should be based on credible evidence and evaluated, and gives bystander training as an example.4
Australia
The National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence has applied to universities since 1 January 2026. It requires prevention education for students and staff that covers bystander intervention, is based on evidence and is evaluated.5
United States
Under the Clery Act, colleges in federal student aid programmes must run prevention and awareness programmes for all incoming students and new employees. These must include safe and positive options for bystander intervention.6
How common it is
of final-year undergraduates in England said they had been sexually harassed since becoming a student. 14.1% said they had experienced sexual assault or violence.7
students in Australia said they had been sexually harassed since starting university. 1 in 20 said they had been sexually assaulted.8
of undergraduate women at 33 US universities reported sexual contact without consent, by physical force or when unable to consent, since enrolling.9
The three surveys use different definitions and years (2025, 2021 and 2019), so the figures should not be compared with each other.
Run a pilot with your students
We run The House Chat with a group of your students. You can use it on its own or inside an existing workshop. We agree with you beforehand what is measured and how.
Sources
- Latané, B. and Darley, J. M. (1970). The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn’t He Help? New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts
- Slater, M. et al. (2013). Bystander responses to a violent incident in an immersive virtual environment. PLoS ONE 8(1): e52766
- Neyret, S. et al. (2020). An embodied perspective as a victim of sexual harassment in virtual reality reduces action conformity in a later Milgram obedience scenario. Scientific Reports 10, 6207
- Office for Students, Condition E6: harassment and sexual misconduct (in force 1 August 2025), and its guidance on training
- Australian Government, National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence 2025, Standard 3
- US Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 668.46(j), programmes to prevent dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking
- Office for Students, sexual misconduct survey of final-year undergraduates in England, published 25 September 2025 (pilot survey)
- Universities Australia, National Student Safety Survey 2021, national report (43,819 students, 38 universities)
- Association of American Universities, Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct, 2019 (33 universities, 181,752 students)
Checked on 2 October 2026. Source 9 checked again on 6 October 2026.
If you need support
- United StatesRAINN, 800-656-4673
- England and Wales24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, 0808 500 2222
- Australia1800RESPECT, 1800 737 732
- Spain016
To talk to Kiin about universities, write to info@kiin.tech.