The Issues with Verifying Sexual Consent On An Application

Well, we are in it. LegalFling, a new Dutch based phone app, has created this exact idea with a live contract that is a “legally binding agreement,” according to the apps website.

This isn’t the first phone application to attempt to traverse the “he said, she said” debate. Good2Go was another free application where potential partners could determine whether two people were ready to have sexual relations or not. The app was simple: A screen pops up and asks the partner, “Are we good2go?” There are two possible answers, “No, thanks” and “Yes, but we need to talk.” If a partner chooses “No, thanks,” a screen pops up that says, “Remember! No means No! Only Yes means Yes, BUT can be changed to NO at anytime!” For the app, LegalFling, topics in the contract touch on rules of condoms, STIs, and the privacy of photos and videos.

However, Good2Go seemed to disappear into the carcass of the internet. The only application under this name that exists now is a bathroom app for users to find clean public restrooms. Somehow, this is eerily similar to navigating the current dating world.

While these app’s may have good intentions, especially with technology ruling the current dating sphere, they are lacking in many other important areas. While most people find consenting via a contract unsexy, or unattractive, there are also serious implications that these applications would do nothing to help an actual victim in a situation of assault or rape. Consent is revocable, which have seen illustrated in the recent Aziz Ansari article or in the fiction (but shockingly real and accurate) New Yorker piece Cat Person. At any moment an individual can change their mind about sex, so a legal binding blockchain like the one created on LegalFling is problematic and dangerous for participating individuals over the control of their own body.

Consent isn’t a “yes” or “no” answer that remains flat lined for the entire time that you are sexually active with any individual. Everyone has the freedom to revoke this and these applications are actually creating the opposite. Where a “he said, she said” argument could turn into a “Well, she originally said yes and signed a contract,” even though she later changed her answer to “no.”

Another phone app, SaSie, is more specifically geared towards students who are looking to sign a consent form before engaging in any further activities together. Apps like these require reading and signing lengthy contracts, providing photos of IDs, and saving it onto a file via your phone. However, pressuring someone to click “yes” on phone app isn’t considered in applications like this. These applications misunderstand what it means to be a sexual individual, seeking consent from their partner and for themselves. “People think about consent in terms of ‘I need to cover my ass so no one can accuse me of rape.’ And honestly, when you’re approaching consent from that angle, that’s a really rapey angle… it’s about covering your butt instead of actually showing up for your partner,” writes Jaclyn Friedman in Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World Without Rape. 

Consent is about treating your partner, or any individual, like a human being and giving them the respect that we all deserve. It does not lie in the application among a check list and long thread of words meant for a legal opportunity. It is the trust that your sexual partner, your friend, a stranger, a human being, will not violate your freedom or your safety for a blimp of their violent sexual transgressions.

Terrible design flaws aside, these types of apps do bring a conversation of consensual and safe sex to the forefront. With one in five college students being sexually assaulted and not reporting the case, a dialogue between partners to safely explain what their educated thoughts are on the subject is necessary. It provides a platform for intimacy, exploration, and trust. The smartphone application, PlsPlsMe does a decent job of achieving this type of activity. Couples are asked to take a quiz where they are asked what current kinks or interests. If partners share that interest, they are encouraged to discuss those topics and how to begin incorporating them into the bedroom.

Empowering Victims created three applications that design a conversation over the topic of consent.

1. We-Consent incorporates video consent.
2. What-About-No has a video component of a police officer telling them no.
3. I’ve-Been-Violated includes video and audio after an assault has occurred for them to gain as much evidence as possible.

Obviously, these applications have serious flaws and are not meant to be used in a practical situation but are meant to create conversation and education. The Executive Director of Empowering Victims, Michael Lissack said that, “The goal is to encourage and ‘nudge’ such dialogue into taking place.”

Smartphone applications are taking the tech world by storm—so why not breach the world of sexual education and sexual consent? These start ups are fostering the right questions, demanding the correct answering, but are falling short on what it means to truly understand responsible and safe interactions.

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By S. Nicole Lane on January 24, 2018
Nicole is a women's health journalist living in Chicago. Her sex and art column, "Intimate Justice" can be found on Sixty Inches from Center. She also contributes to The Establishment, HelloGiggles, GO Magazine, and elsewhere. In addition to writing she is an artist who works with assemblage and sculpture. She tweets at @snicolelane.