Nude Family swim at Stoke Waterworld

My naturist male friends aren’t more of a risk than my non-naturist male friends just because they are a naturist How do you know, my parents felt this too, it was a few years later when I told my parents, they’d asked me, they’d suddenly put 2&2 together, it explained my rudeness around one of their friends and the reason they’d asked me was because they’d heard through the grapevine that he’d been inappropriate round other kids.

My personal view is that we need sensible, rational discussions and information about paedophilia and safe guarding etc., and not those born from hysteria and knee jerk reactions. Demonising naturism is a case in point.

I believe society is always moving forwards in how it understands such things, and we still have a lot to do.

We don’t shut any (all) schools down because a teacher turned out to be a paedophile. We may want more information from the school, we may seek to confirm that the school is addressing anything overlooked or anything can be improved upon. This is because we understand that the despite the best efforts of the school, an individual has managed to breach the safety measures in place, or what was unapparent became so for whatever reason.

By the argument of banning naturism because of the news articles and personal story, we should also ban babysitting because that was also shared as an incident relating to abuse here too. This is of course not a sensible option.

These were times when children were alone with adults, or in the care of other adults.

Remember, in naturism, children are under the supervision of, and responsibility of their parents at all times.

Parents do their best with regards to safeguarding all the time, and make decisions about who they trust or not.

My naturist male friends aren’t more of a risk than my non-naturist male friends just because they are a naturist.

It’s a complex issue. And one that needs constant examination, but not in the context of banning something as a knee jerk reaction.

To be clear, I’m not saying things can’t happen, they can and do, the same as they can anywhere. But establishments like schools and British Naturism, together with parents, can mitigate against them to the best of their ability and with continued developing knowledge.

And actually how some of my counselling dealt with my experience is that Naturism was popular back in the 70’s, and to hear events going on like this today makes my blood boil.

vinyl are bonkers feelings invalid based on your notion of how people should feel?

I haven’t said anything about how “people should feel”. Perhaps you’ve mixed me up with someone else.

But, on the other hand, there's nothing wrong with being comfortable with it.

Harm only comes when nudity is used to shock or intimidate others, or when it's approached voyeuristically. I say, yet again, that most paedophiles wear clothes and most abuse happens within a trusted family and friends circle - it is not commonly committed by naked strangers.

I don't understand why people are so judgemental of others' choices.

Thanks Handsoffhisback, I should have known better than to tab on this thread, it has invoked all sorts of feelings, if I don’t come back please feel free to use my example as a discussion point from a child’s POV, kids do what their parents want them to do, at least they did back in the 70’s, doesn’t mean they are really ok with it, some will be I guess but not me.

pbs.twimg.com/media/Eino1kCWkAMrKpB?format=jpg&name=medium

Lordamighty

And therein lies my concern in print. Thanks for the link.

It is indeed. Quite suggestive.

The appeal of my body is the reason I don't want to be nude in front of others. Because that appeal was codified into my conscious as a 5yr old and reinforced all through childhood, puberty, young adulthood, and adulthood by males that wanted to touch it and to abuse it. Because of my life experiences covering my genitals is of utmost importance to me - for safety and personal dignity.

Again, I am not a parent so while I may disagree with the practice of naturism and children being nude in front of strangers - I am going from my understanding of childhood development, boundary creation and enforcement, and personal childhood experience not a desire to suppress a child's natural state.

Being open minded is great but I can't get onboard with your resulting assumption that the naturists have it 'right'.

I don't think they are 'wrong' per se but I can say that I disagree with their confidence in being able to keep those safe that we hold most dear (regardless of safeguarding training). FTR, I believe that SterFran00 has their children's best interests at heart and finds the naturist practice to be safe or they wouldn't engage their children in it.

My personal convictions bolstering my research etc. comes from the following experience:

My mother was an RN in pediatric cancer wards and my father was our primary caretaker - we were their everything (until the divorce two years later), they never had us around strangers unless we were fully supervised by a trusted adult. The first time we had a trusted non-family babysitter I was molested - he was a trusted teenager well known to my dad as dad was his youth group leader at our Catholic church - I thought this kid hung the stars (before that night he made me feel very safe in supervised interactions). Point is, my parents did nothing wrong in this scenario and what happened still happened and has affected me greatly throughout my life. Thus, I find any risk of this happening to be insurmountable.

I have a genuine concern and desire to make sense of what I find insensible (fairly or not, and certainly biased).

Dismissing safeguarding concerns as personal hang ups about body image is really missing my point and the point of the other posters coming from a similar place.

In a naturist family, nudity won't be seen by the children as anything out of the ordinary.”
I don't understand this. Unless you live in some sort of commune, the kids will be perfectly well aware that their friends (most people, in fact) don't live like this and it is in fact very much out of the ordinary.

They're only nudists because they're parents have adopted it.

You might say that about any lifestyle choice adopted by parents that involves the whole family. Where do you draw the line? No child should be baptised, because they haven't consented to being part of a religion? No child should eat meat because they haven't consented to being non-vegan? No child should be driven in a car because they haven't consented to something that carries a high risk of accident/death?

Pelleas - so you’re saying not wearing clothes is something we should be progressing to? Despite the British climate?

That's an interesting question. If you go back to Victorian times, it was considered unseemly for women to wear anything that revealed their ankles. I would argue that the greater freedom over the years for women pretty much to dress as they liked in public (barring nudity) is a progression.

Given the way the climate is changing, nudity during summer heatwaves might well become the most comfortable option in future.

Despite health and hygiene concerns? Okay mate. Love to see the state of those London Tube seats after rush hour in the summer when your law comes in mate.

In hot weather, people generally sweat through their clothes anyway. You're deluding yourself if you think that Tube seat is clean just because the sweat has made its way through a pair of pants and trousers.

None of the consenting adults who buy tickets. It’s the non consenting children I’m concerned about.

People are only shocked because they see nudity as abnormal. In a naturist family, nudity won't be seen by the children as anything out of the ordinary.

As for non-consenting - again, I think people are deluding themselves if they think wearing swimming costumes will prevent voyeurism from those with nefarious intentions. You might as well argue that no one should be taken to a swimming pool below the age of 18.

Pelleas - so you’re saying not wearing clothes is something we should be progressing to?

How on earth do you manage to extrapolate that from what Pelleas said?

Walking naked through a public park - yes, might shock or harm others, not acceptable in British society. Attending/organising an event which is clearly advertised as being for nudists - no one is going to be shocked - therefore, it's acceptable
Is it acceptable for the kids involved who have not given consent? They're only nudists because they're parents have adopted it.