The (im)possibilities of consent: Navigating young children's entanglements with sexual consent in Spain

In recent years, consent has become central to social and educational debate in Spain. However, consent in early childhood remains a controversial area, particularly concerning genital touching among peers. This article explores the narratives of 4- to 7-year-old children about these practices, drawing on 20 focus groups conducted in eight schools in the province of Barcelona (2022–2025). From a feminist new materialist perspective, we understand sexuality as a discursive-material assemblage and employ the concept of ‘thing-power’ to analyse how school objects – a gate, a poster – exercise agency in the production of (im)possibilities for childhood consent. The findings reveal the coexistence of two discourses: a dominant one (‘You cannot touch’) and an emergent one (‘Yes, with permission’), which often arises in intra-action with the researchers’ questions. In contrast to restrictive approaches based on surveillance and prohibition – which confine these practices to secrecy and guilt, hindering the detection of abuse – children produce lines of flight, such as a ‘penis–vulva’ game mediated by underwear, which temporarily deterritorialise the norm without openly confronting it. Talking about these practices with children opens up possibilities for adult support that mere prohibition forecloses.