Girl, 16, dies after suspected choking during consensual sex on Sydney’s Northern Beaches

An investigation has been launched after a teenage girl died in hospital days after being found unresponsive inside a home on Sydney’s Northern Beaches – with police examining whether she was choked during a consensual sex act.

Paramedics were called to conduct a welfare check and found the 16-year-old unresponsive at a Elanora Heights home about 5.45pm on Sunday.

The Daily Telegraph reports officers have been told the girl was engaged in a consensual act with a male known to her, when she became unresponsive.

She was treated at the scene and flown to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition.

The girl died in hospital on Tuesday night, NSW Police confirmed.

“Officers attached to Northern Beaches Police Area Command commenced an investigation into the incident,” a spokesperson said.

“Inquiries are ongoing.”

Tributes have begun rolling in – with sexual consent activist Chanel Contos describing the girl’s death as “insanely preventable” and adding she was devastated.

“There is no safe way to engage in strangulation during sex, and unfortunately, mainly because of pornography, where young people are learning and mimicking scripts from that, this act that was traditionally on the fringes of kink culture has made it way into the mainstream,” Ms Contos – the founder of Teach Us Consent – told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“We need to seriously investigate the impact that pornography is having on shaping the sexual scripts and behaviours of young people.”

A University of Melbourne study found 50 per cent of young Australians had engaged in choking during sex.

Researchers found strangulation during sex carried risks including brain injury and death.

“There’s no evidence there is any safe way to undertake strangulation,” researchers stated.

“It was concerning to us that many of the respondents seemed to believe sexual strangulation can be done safely.”

More to come.