﻿Hi, welcome to our talk. I’m Jathan Sadowski, and this paper is also co-authored by Yolande
Strengers, Zhuying Li, Anna Shimshak, and Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller.
In this paper, we consider how recent advancements in feminist understandings of sexual consent
should extend to, and further inform, practices of consent in HCI,
particularly focusing on forms of embodied interactions with emerging technologies.
Our paper, like the design activism work by Lee and Toliver, draws on a popular consent
model commonly known as “FRIES”, developed by the US advocacy group Planned Parenthood.
FRIES provides a straightforward analytical tool for considering the applicability of some
of the most important elements of affirmative “Yes Means Yes” consent for HCI. Specifically,
that consent must be freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic, and specific. We use FRIES
to conceptualize the shift from a static, binary (yes or no) model of consent towards a dynamic,
ongoing and embodied process. We supplement FRIES with concepts
from erotic play practices originating in BDSM communities. Which stands for bondage, domination,
submission, and masochism. Drawing from these, we develop the TEASE process guideline to provide
inspiration for consensual practice in HCI. TEASE stands for: Traffic lights; Establish
ongoing dialogue; Aftercare; Safewords; and Explicate soft and hard limits.
We explore how consent is embodied and manifested in different speculative scenarios
by applying TEASE to three different types of interactions.
First is bodily-play interactions, which involve those that place the human body in the centre of
the experience. For example, consider a project from the Exertion Games Lab called InsideOut,
which allows users to playfully interact with the real-time video of their interior body.
The player swallows an imaging capsule and wears a display embedded in their shirt in
front of the body showing their gastrointestinal tract’s video in real-time. Such ingestible games
pose a challenge for consent since it is nearly impossible to remove the sensor
until the player excretes it naturally. Referring to our TEASE guidelines, bodily-play
interactions can make explicating hard and soft limits important. Before the interaction begins,
participants should be able to discuss and establish safe boundaries around
what levels of discomfort or displeasure they are willing to experience.
Second is interactions with smart technologies that are designed to be constantly observing
users, often with their operations being hidden. Many smart devices are now also
including more active designs intended to nudge people or restrict certain choices.
A smart fridge might, for example, try to incentivize people to buy healthier alternatives
or report unhealthy choices to the owner’s health insurance provider.
Referring to our TEASE guidelines, one possible approach to redesigning consent
would be integrating safewords into smart devices. Just as personal voice assistants
like Alexa have “wake words” that activate them, safewords could operate like quick
commands that cause smart technology to cease collecting and sharing data, or to turn off its
always-listening mode. Effective safewords should be out of context of normal commands or requests,
and unlikely to be misunderstood. An example could be: “Hey smart fridge, aardvark!”
Third is intimate interactions with anthropomorphized devices and robots. Voice
assistants, for example, have been criticised for responding positively or submissively to
sexual solicitations and verbal abuse. Issues of sexual and HCI consent become even more entangled
when considering the design and programming of intimate technologies like sex robots.
Referring to our TEASE guidelines, such intimate interactions could use
traffic lights in their design. Digital voice assistants or sex robots could indicate when
the interaction is respectful and consensual with a green light, where the conversation is becoming
disrespectful with an orange light, or when the interaction needs to stop with a red light
(which could be reinforced by the device turning off for a period of time).
In conclusion, in this paper we contribute a set of speculative scenarios for how affirmative
sexual consent models can be put into practice in HCI, by developing the TEASE process guideline.
Through this work, we show how the feminist sexual consent movement has
much to offer HCI. Thank you!