Voyeur caught filming teen girl in Butlin's changing rooms - are family changing rooms a good idea?

Oh, and

4. A third space for anyone old enough to be in a changing room without a parent (?10 and up maybe?) who does not want to change in the changing room for their biological sex.

I agree - changing rooms as follows:

1. Single sex women's, allowing only biological women and children of either sex under 8.

2. Single sex men's, allowing only biological men and children of either sex under 8.

3. Family changing rooms, allowing only parents/carers of either sex who are accompanying their children. No lone adults or groups of adults without children allowed.

Sunkisses

I think the idea was that only families would use the mixed sex rooms, and everyone else would use single sex facilities. So you would have male and female change rooms and then family ones for people with young kids.

There is some logic to that, although I wonder if people would start to think of the single sex change rooms as "adult" and so not suitable for kids. A lot of the time there is no reason small kids need to go into a family changing area.

I was more thinking that only people with kids used the mixed areas- bigger cubicles and equipment like change tables. Singles using the same sex changing areas.

I suppose we'll just carry on with the mixed sex agenda until the numbers of those being filmed and perved on / assaulted is noticed by those in power

At my most cynical I think that this will never be sorted out because even if those in power finally do take note (& it seems there's already been SO many incidents but I suppose the press rarely report on them as being part of a bigger problem) by that time we will have reached a point where we are no longer allowed to recognise that certain types of crimes are overwhelmingly committed by males. It will be seen as stereotyping to categorise people by genital type or something. Twitter has already banned people for stating accurate sex based crime stats.

I hate that we have to think about all this

Wouldn't it be nice if progressives were thinking about women and girls, and their needs, and challenging the culture of misogyny, instead of doubling down on it!

Never in my absolute wildest dreams did I think this is where progressivism would be in 2020. More chance of me living in space than this, I thought.

Only works if your pool still has single sex areas. Many now only have the one big "changing village" and no single sex spaces at all.

Can we ensure only family groups use them? So singletons will be in the usual changing areas, and only groups with children in the family areas?

At my local I take flip flops and wrap myself in a towel and scamper across the foyer to the gym/sports hall changing rooms. Better privacy and warmer showers!

From the article OP has highlighted
The judge put him on the Sex Offenders Register and made him subject of a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order which restricts his future contact with children
How can these orders be policed now. I know men have been banned from being near schools etc but now they can visit M&S or leisure centres with impunity. Single sex facilities are the only way of safe guarding.

I've stopped using our local pools as they only have a "changing village" in other workds - they combined the male and female changing rooms without really adding many cubicles - the original cubicles are mostly half height anyway and I didn't like using them when they were single sex! mostly used the loos - now there's nowhere that's entirely private - there are the family changing rooms but they are just a few larger - mostly full height- but still with a gap top and bottom - -

they have at least added a few more enclosed shower cubicles - but mostly curtained - again not terribly secure -

this is the pool that supposedly had a £3million revamp - only had combined changing rooms!! pool looked the same - flooring was the same- and the cracked glass in the viewing are was still there - like it had been for the past 5 years---

My local leisure centre only has mixed sex swim changing, DC from age 8 upwards who can swim 25m can change and swim unattended. There have been local press reports of voyeurs.

There are single sex sports changing and shower areas, nearby, so theoretically could use those, but I suspect they would allow male bodied people to self ID as women, so not really single sex.

On the other hand, boys aged 8 and over and men were probably more at risk from male perpetrators of crimes when we had single sex facilities than in mixed sex facilities.

There is good staff presence in the changing areas and poolside, which is good.

dumonde

Same thing happened to my friend, ‘luckily’ for her there was an off duty police officer in the locker area who caught him

A man put his head under my cubicle over 20 years ago. First and last time I used a mixed sex ‘changing village’.

At least the phone thing makes it impossible to deny what they are doing - no chance of conviction when it’s your word against theirs (and no CCTV in the change area due to privacy, ironically).

It's so sad that we're losing all the protective mechanisms that kept women and girls (and children) safe. I suppose we'll just carry on with the mixed sex agenda until the numbers of those being filmed and perved on / assaulted is noticed by those in power (maybe when people start demanding compensation). Then perhaps safety will be a priority again?

I’ve always wondered why it’s not staff allowing access to family changing.. like if you walk in with dcs they offer you a door code to go through that area vs anyone n everyone, which inevitably here leads to groups of teenagers faffing about in the only spaces big enough for a buggy/wheelchair.

I know not all parents/adults with children aren’t creepily filming others but surely it’s a reduced risk.

Every private gym I've visited (and I've visited a lot) has open changing with only a couple of cubicles, and people get on fine. I prefer it as you have more space. DD tends to go into a cubicle though as a self-conscious teen.

I've never used an open changing room since I left school. I think a big part of the problem now is that no one seems to care about privacy when getting changed. I've never understood why we had to change alongside everyone else at school.

re air, I can't see that being a huge problem as the door will be open between uses. If there is gap too small for a phone, that would help.

I think they are a necessity... I hated going swimming with the kids with a passion when they were little and needed help, but family rooms made it a bit less unbearable!

I don't know if its the same with men

Yes, my OH chose his gym based on whether they had cubicles in the changing rooms or not. He says that his current gym has both - an open area at one end and cubicles at the other - apparently most men choose the cubicles and few change in the open area.

What baffles me is why the cubicles aren't floor to ceiling.

I think this would be a lot harder to clean, and then you'd also need to get air circulation arranged in each cubical. Otherwise they'd get nasty really quickly in the damp.

Actually one of the reasons I don't like the family rooms is that the cubicles gross me out a little.

Oh, that's interesting. Here they are called "family" changing rooms. They seemed mainly meant to make it easier for men to take kids to the pool or cover the time when a young boy might still need his mom but he seemed too old to go into the ladies with her.

Now though they are the largest part of newer facilities, so I could see them becoming the only option here as well, and phasing out the others. Though some people who don't like their chaos might complain.

I do think there have been a few things contributing to their growth. One being that people seem to expect to supervise their kids to a much later age than they used to. And one being that at least among women, many no longer wish to change in an open change room, even one with only other women. (I don't know if its the same with men.) This is a change, when I was growing up adult women changed and sometimes even showered openly in change rooms, it was only tween and teen girls who were uptight and that was considered part of the unfortunate irrationalities of being that age.

What baffles me is why the cubicles aren't floor to ceiling.

In the U.K. goosefoot, there isn't a choice most of the time. There are mixed sex changing 'villages' or nothing in all the leisure centres round here