Online Dating as Context to Design Sexual Consent Technology with Women and LGBTQ+ Stakeholders

This paper uses online dating as a context to explore futures for sexual consent technology: systems that mediate how partners exchange consent in order to prevent nonconsensual sex. Motivated by evidence that sexual consent is already mediated by computers in ways that challenge perceptions of sexual agency, we present a participatory design study in the United States with 17 women and LGBTQ+ stakeholders (demographics at disproportionate risk of sexual violence). Contrary to consent apps that are used right before sex to record irrevocable consent, participants envisioned alternative consent technology being used across online and offline interaction to normalize candid dialogue about sexual expectations and informed verbal consent throughout sex. Findings demonstrate opportunity for dating apps and associated technologies to foster voluntary adoption of affirmative consent, which has been widely advocated in public health for sexual violence prevention yet historically under-adopted by the general public. Content warning: graphic descriptions of sexual activity.