www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9732419/Students-explicit-verbal-consent-touching-anyone.html
Students at two London universities must obtain 'explicit verbal consent' before touching anyone inside their student union or risk being barred under safe space rules, MailOnline can today reveal.
The directives at Goldsmiths and SOAS mean that students wanting to hug their friends or pat them on the back to say well done must ask in advance before doing so or risk being turfed out by security staff.
Both student unions have bars at their headquarters and regularly run party nights, where the requirement to ask permission before touching anyone would also apply in a bid to uphold 'physical and emotional boundaries'.
The directives at Goldsmiths (left) and SOAS mean that students wanting to hug their friends or pat them on the back to say well done must ask in advance before doing so or risk being turfed out by security staff.
Officials urge onlookers to report any violations of their safe space policies by being 'active bystanders', raising the prospect of people informing on their fellow students to union staff or the head of security.
Frank Furedi, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, suggested the rules would do nothing to stop abuse.
He told MailOnline: 'These policies are mind-numbingly stupid and utterly impractical. It will not prevent abuse.
'All it does is empower control freaks and inhibit young people from behaving normally'.
SOAS student union says its 'safer spaces policy' is intended to create a 'supportive, non-threatening and inclusive environment for all who participate', including for the survivors of sexual abuse.
I'm slightly baffled by this directive particularly from Goldsmiths who are renowned for their dislike of women (inc sexual abuse survivors) who want to maintain boundaries.
What's going on here? Why such mixed messages? Are young people really this confused about everything?
On one hand you need verbal permission to put an arm around a friend in public but one the other women having to share intimate facilities with male bodied people against their wishes is just fine and those women need 'reeducating' in gulags.
Either people have boundaries or they don't. Pick one!