Negotiating consent in online kinky spaces

Consent is the cornerstone of kink practices, distinguishing them from sexual assault and abuse. In research on sexual consent, kink is often used as an example of how to negotiate consent given the explicit and prior discussion about sexual acts that is said to occur prior to kink activities. Despite this, there is still relatively little research on how consent is navigated in kink settings, particularly given the trend of planning kink through online communication. Instead, there is often the assumption that kink is practiced in a “safe, sane and consensual” way based on literature that pre-dates kinky socio-sexual networking sites. This chapter will explore some of these issues, drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with kinky gay and bisexual men. How consent is navigated through online platforms will be discussed, as well as a consideration of the new risks that are posed through communicating online. The chapter highlights the challenges and difficulty in assuming that kinky individuals utilise an overarching framework for negotiating consent, as well as providing areas for future research.