Nude Family swim at Stoke Waterworld

[VortexofBloggery]

Flagged up by Sammy Woodhouse on Twitter.
mobile.twitter.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1308822025797013509

Supported by who else but NSPCC.

Adults can buy a single ticket.

To Shut it down, Change petition here:
www.change.org/p/water-world-stop-nude-family-swim-session-for-adults-and-children-of-all-ages-at-water-world?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_24863394_en-GB%3A2&recruiter=1151217419&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=tap_basic_share

Attended by convicted paedophile
www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4047602.convicted-brierfield-paedophile-member-naturist-club/

Unbelievable.

@Clymene

Here's the article linked to in the OP for the hard of reading which confirms that a convicted paedophile did join a naturist group and did go to Waterworld with them.

www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4047602.convicted-brierfield-paedophile-member-naturist-club/

Despite being a convicted paedophile.

Apologies I thought the OP meant this swim! This is the 2009 article, so, yes, when it was discovered and police told British Naturism, he wasn’t allowed anymore.

Any paedophile, who is not on the police register, or radar, can just walk into the place, disrobe, and be around naked children.

Yes - they could also become a P.E. teacher, youth activity leader, nurse, doctor or simply a babysitter and achieve the same end.

Pelleas, the paedophile is naked too. That's the difference. As the naturist poster said earlier, "the difference is like having sex without a condom". The paedophile agrees. That's why he's there, to be naked around the kids (who are naked too).

I’m sure most of them will be fine, if they’re used to it they’ll be oblivious, but their privacy and dignity is being denied without their consent. It goes against all the safeguarding advice they are given at school.

There are two separate issues here.

1. Non-consent. I agree children shouldn't be forced to attend naturist events against their will. There have been examples on the thread of that happening and I agree it's wrong. However, if the children raise no objections, that isn't an issue.

1. Safeguarding. Creating a hue and cry about a chaperoned and vetted naturist event is counterproductive - it distracts attention from where the real dangers lie - situations where children are unchaperoned by parents, or where parents are complicit in abuse.

A voyeuristic paedophile might turn up anywhere, and children do not need to be naked to be 'used' for voyeuristic purposes. It's wrong and it's sickening but unfortunately it's largely undetectable - I say 'unfortunately' but at least the children are spared the distressing knowledge of it in those instances.

Organised naturism events are not high-risk events for child abuse. I'm absolutely not suggesting this applies to anyone on this thread, but have you considered that the motives of people making it into a media sensation might not be entirely honourable? Misdirection leaps to mind.

Assuming that silence, or even a lack of cognisance of their own rights or discomfort, is consent?...that it isn’t an issue? You clearly have no knowledge of how things like this affect children.

But this assumes there is something inherently wrong with nudity. There isn't - being clothed is merely a societal norm in the UK. There are situations when clothes are a practical necessity, but swimming isn't one of them. Discomfort at being naked is a learned response, as is titillation at the sight of the naked body (hence women's breasts, normally covered, are seen as erotic, but men's chests are not).

If a child is unable to speak up about things that they object to, or which make them uncomfortable, they will be at far more risk from grooming situations than they will from organised naturism - in other words, that points to a parenting failure, not an issue with naturism per se.

1. Non-consent. I agree children shouldn't be forced to attend naturist events against their will. There have been examples on the thread of that happening and I agree it's wrong. However, if the children raise no objections, that isn't an issue.
I disagree that not raising objections is the same as consent. Silent compliance isn't consent. That's a dangerous road surely.

they do not need to be naked to enjoy themselves

Of course not - no one is saying nudity is an essential component of enjoyment. But whether nudity itself is enjoyable is a subjective matter. I'm not particularly interested in walking round naked, mainly because these days, I have to wear a bra 24/7 to be comfortable. But I do love a naked swim, where water buoyancy means painful saggy boobs are not an issue.

those leaders are DBS checked so a level of safeguarding has at least been attempting

DBS checking is of no use if the paedophile has never been convicted. And British Naturism has a safeguarding policy - most importantly children cannot attend events without being chaperoned by their parents - which is not the case with sports coaching, youth groups etc.

I can acknowledge that my child’s teacher or sports coach could potentially unfortunately be a pervert, so why can’t they reason that a paedophile could exist in a naturist club?

That is exactly the point I am making in defence of naturism. I can't speak for others, but I recognise that paedophiles may be found in any environment. And the evidence (previously linked) shows that, while paedophiles have occasionally been found within naturism, unfortunately they are far more common in environments where children are unchaperoned - and they are able to do far more damage in those environments because they have physical access to abuse children, in addition to voyeurism.

I don't understand why naturism is being vilified as a hotbed of paedophilia because there's no evidence at all that it is. All I am hearing is prurient speculation that a child free person in a naturist environment must be in want of wank-fodder.

@Slightlybrwnbanana

1. Non-consent. I agree children shouldn't be forced to attend naturist events against their will. There have been examples on the thread of that happening and I agree it's wrong. However, if the children raise no objections, that isn't an issue. I disagree that not raising objections is the same as consent. Silent compliance isn't consent. That's a dangerous road surely.

But that is down to parenting - teaching children to speak up if they are uncomfortable.

As I said upthread, if you have a silently compliant child, unfortunately they will be at risk in many situations. Children being raised in an atmosphere of silent compliance is a parenting issue, not a naturism issue.

Yes, I take the point that a DBS check will screen out convicted paedophiles.

But it's not typically needed in situations where children will usually only be present with their parents. For instance, shop workers are not DBS checked, yet clothes shops have changing rooms where children might be in a state of undress. If parents cannot safeguard their children by being present - again, that is a parenting issue, not a naturism issue.

The benefits of naturism - freedom and choice are two.

We, as parents, recognised that our children enjoyed being clothes free - they had nappy/clothes free times as infants, often ran around after bath time without clothes, sometimes slept naked, and of course loved being naked on the beach. As I have previously mentioned, my husband and I were comfortable naked around the home too.

Around the age of three years old, I imagine, is the sort of age where on a clothed beach you’d let your child be naked but after that, the societal norm is probably that they’d wear clothes. And that is more for the comfort of others than the child themselves.

Discovering naturism where we could be as family, with families like ours, where we were happy to continue allowing them to be naked if they wished, particularly outdoors, or swimming, meant we could step outside the preconceived notions that after a certain age children ‘should’ be dressed.

That choice also extends to if a child just wants to wear a t shirt or just underwear, again were the norm in society is that they would wear ‘more’ than that.

Same for adults, we can wear sarongs, or a t shirt if it’s a bit chilly, but not have to go the whole hog and get fully dressed.

People on this thread have mentioned things like the benefits of seeing natural bodies, body positivity and they are also benefits. Seeing body confident people is another one - people with mastectomies, disabilities, operation scars, tattoos etc.

There’s many more and not one that is a singular thing, so it all contributes to our experience of naturism as a family...

@Handsoffisback

But what benefit do they have in seeing a wrinkly old man’s penis? If they enjoy being naked, they can do that at home or in the paddling pool in the summer. They don’t need to do it in front of strangers.

It's interesting that you've given the example of a 'wrinkly old man' because that does rather reinforce Ster's point:

People on this thread have mentioned things like the benefits of seeing natural bodies, body positivity and they are also benefits. Seeing body confident people is another one - people with mastectomies, disabilities, operation scars, tattoos etc.

You may counter this by saying that the same would apply to the penis of a fit young man, but we have to ask ourselves why the bodies of the old are the first to leap to mind as being something unpleasant that there can be no value in looking at.

There are different views on the 'youth worship' of modern British culture - personally, it saddens me when I read of young women botoxing themselves at the first sight of a frown-line, of 12 year olds buying anti-wrinkle face creams and so on.

When it comes to bodies, often young people's ideas of the naked body are informed by air-brushed pictures of celebrities, or even pornography - which can lead to body dysmorphia, eating disorders etc. because people have few opportunities to see what real and ageing human bodies look like, in a context free of sexual titillation.

Of course, naturism is not the only 'answer' to this - but it's one way of teaching young people what is normal and realistic in the human body.

I could write an essay on my experiences with naturism in my childhood but it’s very distressing to get into. I’ll summarise:
Sometimes children can’t say no
My physical/sexual boundaries were screwed
Dsis and I narrowly escaped being raped on one occasion
I beg everyone to please support all naturist locations and events to be adult only

I’m shaking at the memories, and I’m mid 40s now

I'm sure there are - what I'm saying is, that's no bad thing!

Thanks. I remember lying that I had my period in a desperate attempt to be allowed to keep my knickers on