One in seven young Australians believe a man is justified in forcing sex on a woman if she initiates it but then changes her mind.

And almost half of all young men believe women invent accusations of sexual assault to "get back" at them.

These are just two of the findings in an extensive survey on how sexual violence and gender inequality is viewed by more than 1,700 Australians aged between 16 and 24, and the report's authors saying they find the results "disturbing".

Lead researcher Dr Anastasia Powell said the National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey, which tracked changes in attitudes between 2009 and 2017 showed although there had been some improvements in young people’s understanding of violence against women over the last 10 years, it was worrying that many still held disturbing attitudes.

"We need to do more to teach young men about what consent looks like," she said.

"Swiping right is not consent, kissing is not consent and saying 'yes' to one sexual act doesn’t give blanket consent to everything.

"It’s highly problematic that young men think it’s sometimes OK to force sex on a woman, or believe that women want men to persistently pursue them even after they’ve said they’re not interested."

Confusion over consent

Dating in the age of Tindr may be to blame for some disturbing trends in young people's attitudes towards sexual consent. Credit: National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey / Pexels/7 News digital

The report found many young men did not have a clear understanding of what controlling or abusive behaviour was.

One in five male respondents aged 16 to 24 said they did not believe that using technology to track their partner’s movements, such as logging into her social media accounts or installing spyware on her phone, was abusive behaviour.

Almost a quarter of young men said they believe women find it flattering to be persistently pursued, even after they have indicated they are not interested, while only 13 per cent of young women believed this to be so.

Domestic violence 'OK' sometimes

The seriousness of domestic violence is not fully understood among some young people. Credit: National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey. / Getty/7 News digital

The report also found that a significant portion of young people still trivialised domestic violence and used false allegations of sexual assault and physical violence to get what they wanted.

More than 30 per cent of young men said they believed women frequently made sexual assault allegations after they had initiated sex but then later regretted it.

Half of all young men - and one in four young women - also believed that women often make up or exaggerate claims of domestic violence to advance their case in court custody battles, while one in four young men believe domestic violence is excusable if the perpetrator shows genuine remorse afterwards.

Public vs private life

Power and control within personal relationships is not well understood among young people. Credit: National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey / Pexels/7 News digital

The RMIT researchers said while it was encouraging to see more of the younger generation embracing gender equity in the workplace and in political leadership, there were worrying attitudes when it came to issues of power and control in personal relationships.

More than 40 per cent of both young men and young women agreed with the statement 'I think it’s natural for a man to want to appear in control of his partner in front of his male friends’.

And more than one in five young men still think men should 'take control' of relationships and be the head of the household.

Ruth Phillips, associate professor at the University of Sydney's School of Education and Social Work, said the outdated attitudes expressed by some young people in the survey could be the results of a prolonged backlash against feminism.

"This notion that one person needs to control the other... I think that’s the most depressing (finding) because control is a form of abuse," she said.

"This would never be accepted in a (friendship) between two men - that one man should automatically control the other.

"This is a deeply entrenched backlash against feminism, where attitudes about women's roles in the public sphere may have progressed, but have not in the domestic sphere.

An issue of control

Phillips said some of the attitudes over men's sexuality expressed in the survey were extraordinary and pre-dated the sexual revolution.

Almost one in three young men and young women agreed with the premise that rape was the result of men not being able to control their need for sex.

Roughly the same number agreed that when a man is very sexually aroused, he may not even realise the woman doesn’t want to have sex.

"This notion of men being uncontrollable animals, that male's access to women is some a sort of entitlement and when in the throes (of sexual attraction) men become deaf and blind and not responsible for their own actions, that' the sort of thing our grandparents believed," Phillips said.