from Hacker News

Australia: Sex consent app proposal sparks backlash

by throwmemoney on 3/18/21, 8:15 AM with 98 comments

• by phs318u on 3/18/21, 9:26 AM

  This is a bit of a hot topic in Australia - and the world (rightly so). A sampling of news articles in the last week:

  https://www.theage.com.au/search?text=consent

  With respect to the idea of consent via app - it's simply a dumb idea. People can change their mind, use of the app can be forced, then there's the whole tracking and data privacy issues (the slut-shaming potential of this data can't be overstated, especially in a courtroom context. "But your record shows you consented to 5 other sexual liasons in the last 3 days").

  Consent is given continually and can be withdrawn instantly. If in doubt whether you have consent, then you probably don't. So ask (again) or stop.

• by skohan on 3/18/21, 9:48 AM

  I have a theory that these kinds of proposals are driven by an unbalanced view of the nature of human sexuality. In other words, if you are someone who works with victims of sexual assault and sexual violence, you would have so much exposure to all the ways in which sex can go wrong that it would be easy to lose perspective on the fact that probably a vast, vast majority of sexual interactions between adults are probably perfectly fine and healthy.

  Im not saying consent is not an issue which should not be taken seriously, but I think the effort to bring formalized tracking and regulation into sex - one of the most natural base and human behaviors besides eating and sleeping - seems like something you would do if you want to treat all sexuality on the terms of the worst examples of sexuality.

• by gerdesj on 3/18/21, 9:42 AM

  "Thousands of young women have detailed their experience of sexual assault during their schooling years - with many noting they weren't certain of what constituted rape."

  "Fix" the above first along with a string of other problems. Then an app might be appropriate but I very much doubt it.

• by skissane on 3/18/21, 9:40 AM

  This isn't a serious proposal. It is just a "thought bubble" that the NSW Police Commissioner shared with the media. I reckon he regrets making the suggestion. It appears that nobody thinks it is a good idea except for him.

  And maybe he's learnt the hard way: nothing wrong with brainstorming and coming up with new ideas, but media interviews are not the right context to do that in.

• by gattr on 3/18/21, 10:03 AM

  This idea is fully escalated in J. Dukaj's 2001 novel "Black oceans" [1].

  > Dukaj extrapolates from the current trend of increasing lawsuits and political correctness: in his world many people willingly live under constant mass surveillance of the New Etiquette (NEti), which registers all their actions so that they couldn't be falsely accused of some "personal offense crime".

  That includes people's apartments and them having sex. And of course the NEti records are sealed and secure - theoretically.

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charne_oceany

• by acatton on 3/18/21, 9:41 AM

  This is solution-ism almost reaching its peak.

  Computer chips will not solve societal problems.

• by pdkl95 on 3/18/21, 10:15 AM

    Man's Lawyer: OK. Let's see. We're talking about a
                  standard one night arrangement, right?
    Woman: I guess. Yeah.
    Man's Lawyer: So we'll say a dinner, complete sexual
                  encounter, full penetraton, optional
                  episode in the morning, right?
    Woman: Just slow down.
    Man: You know I personnally thought it'd be nice.
    Woman: Let me see this.
           My lawyer better see this one.
           For instance... the oral clause...
           seems a little sticky.
  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urS8GmwmeWQ

  Cherry 2000 may be a silly mess of a movie, but its depiction of the lawyerification of dating might have been surprisingly prescient.

• by searchableguy on 3/18/21, 9:49 AM

  Could you detect consent through tracking brain waves?

  There are few classrooms in china using bands to detect whether kids are focusing on the material or not. I wonder if that can be extended to consent too if it works. That will solve the problem of continuous consent.

  The application of this stretches beyond the bedroom. It might be used in court, research, experiments, medical treatment, contracts, notarization, etc. You could add it as a layer in security or authorization systems.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLsHI8aV0g

  That seems like an interesting problem to solve.

• by dgellow on 3/18/21, 9:49 AM

  Blockchain can fix this! Imagine what smart-consent-contract could do. You set your rules, everybody can see it but you’re in full control and do not have the government in between. Now that’s real consent for the 21st century!

  (I’m joking, please don’t take it as an actual idea and make it real, the world is already crazy enough as it is)

• by TheChaplain on 3/18/21, 11:01 AM

  This kind of app already exist in Sweden; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.librasamty...

• by jojobas on 3/18/21, 10:07 AM

  The solution is obvious: one should only have sex under supervision of law enforcement professionals, who would ask whether there's still consent every 15 seconds, otherwise it's rape.

• by timwaagh on 3/18/21, 9:46 AM

  I think it will be used to squeeze guys with less intelligence or perhaps guys who are naive for a lot of cash. I do not think the rape problem which is already pretty well addressed by laws is worth 'solving' by handing women a tool to blackmail guys. But then again if people truly want positive consent, it's actually the only way to do it. In that light recent changes to rape laws across the world to things similar to positive consent can be viewed as implying that this system should exist.

• by f6v on 3/18/21, 9:26 AM

  And here I thought Amazon's "Upload" was just a fantasy...

• by young_unixer on 3/18/21, 9:31 AM

  (Off topic)

  Am I the only one who thinks the whole world is absolutely crazy right now? Like, in general, nothing seems to make sense anymore. When did I get transported into a parallel reality? I think it was 5 years ago after that LSD trip. Ever since then, things are getting increasingly weird

  /rant

• by harry8 on 3/18/21, 9:29 AM

  Everyone got to the correct conclusion about this in seconds.

  If only they'd do the same when some bone-headed policeman or similar says something equally stupid such as "we must weaken encryption"

  All the same reasons.

• by eric4smith on 3/18/21, 9:45 AM

  App is a great idea.

  But in practice with your pants halfway down... hard to implement.

  The fact is that consent can be withdrawn long after the act for a variety of reasons. Let’s get folks.