STD Tests, Condoms & Consent: What Sex Looks Like BTS In Love Island Australia

There's no shortage of sex in the Love Island Australia villa. As the ancient proverb goes, if the Love Island double bed is rockin', don't come knockin'. It seems like every episode, we're inevitably gifted with a montage of some of the hottest people we've ever seen in our lives making out with each other and fumbling under the sheets. It's truly enough to make this single girl weep.

But when it comes to doing the deed in the villa, there's actually much more thought behind it than meets the eye. There are a bunch of precautions that were put into place to make sure it's safe (which is what makes it hot!) before people get down and dirty in the villa.

One of the biggest precautions came before Islanders had even walked through the doors, with contestants undertaking multiple sexual health tests before jumping into the villa to help reassure everyone that the Islanders were free from STDs and STIs.

"As part of the whole application process, I think we ended up doing about three STI checks before going in there," current Love Island Australia contestant, Tyra Johannes, tells Refinery29 Australia. "The last one was pretty much like the day before we flew out. So we're pretty confident in knowing that everyone in there is negative."

Multiple STD tests are just one part of the approach to sexual health in the villa, with firmer consent measures being introduced last year. The 'horny heart' was brought in — a sex button that contestants could push to alert the villa's producers that they consent to the sexual activity they're engaging in at that very moment. It replaced Channel Nine's previous method of obtaining consent, which consisted of contestants yelling out 'I consent!' to the camera. Unsurprisingly, a few people were probably woken up by shouts of consensual passion during the night.

"Consent is massive in there," Tyra explains. "It's huge, which I think is really important." She explains how one night, she was even caught out after forgetting to press the 'button of love'. "I actually got in trouble one night because Ben [Richardson] and I were fumbling in bed and we hadn't pressed the button."

Described as the 'Voice of God' by fellow contestant Lucinda Strafford, producers would often speak in a microphone that would be broadcast throughout the villa. "There's a thing called 'Voice of God' by the producers and they speak into a microphone, and it's this microphone all around the villa," Lucinda told Refinery29 Australia. It's safe to say that it was probably the omnipotent voice Tyra and Ben heard, too.

"The producers were like, 'stop touching each other', 'turn on your buttons if you're okay with it'," Tyra recalls about her incident with Ben. "Everyone was asleep, it was real embarrassing."

"It was over the speaker, so you kind of get a little bit shamed... if you didn't press your button," she laughs. "[But] I think they do a really good job at that. Especially with the whole consent thing."

Tyra also explains that condoms were aplenty in the villa (and no, not just on that daybed with Georgia and Trent). "There are condoms in all the drawers, like, it's all provided there for you," she says. "We got the whole run-through."

So next time you see the cameras in the villa inconspicuously turn into night mode, ready for some hot and heavy panting under the sheets that we, the audience, are awkwardly peering into, you'll know just how much love went into those scenes.