Best Practices for
Consent to Kink
courtesy of national coalition for sexual freedom
The objective of Consent Counts is to decriminalize sexual conduct between consenting adults, including decriminalizing kink that does not result in serious physical injury by ensuring that consent will be recognized as a valid defense to criminal charges brought under assault laws and other statutes.
- All activities must receive Explicit Prior Permission by verbal or written agreement rather than through gestures, body language or past behavior.
- Informed consent requires a discussion of the risks involved in the activity and the steps that are needed to reduce those risks including: study, training, technique and practice.
- Everyone should fully understand both the desires and the boundaries of the other participants.
- Everyone should freely consent to who will be involved prior to beginning.
- Everyone is free to withdraw prior consent at any time during the activity.
- Everyone should have an agreed upon word or signal (called a “safe word”) to clearly express their desire to stop, even if it’s simply “stop” or “no.”
- Consent must be freely given, and not coerced, forced or manipulated from someone.
- Each person should understand everyone’s limitations or barriers to their ability to consent to the planned activities, such as age, diminished mental capacity, or use of drugs or alcohol.\
- Don’t re-negotiate in the middle of your scene unless it is to reject activities that were previously agreed to. A person who is in an altered state of mind may not be able to give informed consent.
- Anything that results in serious bodily injury or that goes beyond the expectations of one of the participants may be deemed criminal, even where consent was given. Serious bodily injury, as defined by the Model Penal Code on Sexual Assault, means injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.
Even if you adhere to all of our Best Practices, you may be violating criminal law.
NCSF materials are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice.
