Consensual Campus Sex? Finally, There's an App for That

Readers will recall me
writing back in June that perhaps the free market, rather than
the government, would provide a solution to the consensual campus
sex conundrum:

Ultimately, I’m counting on the free market to work its magic
and provide a sensible and convenient method of demonstrating
mutual consent. Several writers have
suggested an iPhone app that allows users to clearly
consent to sex—maybe they would have to input a password and then
touch phones, or something?—would do the trick.

Consensual sex? There’s an app for that. One day soon.
Hopefully.

I am pleased to announce that the day is today. The developers
of Good2Go have released
their app on Google Play and are currently waiting on approval
from Apple to do the same on the iPhone.

I was able to test out the app, which is remarkably
well-conceived. When people want to have sex, they can use the app
to make sure all parties have consented. The website explains more fully how this works in
practice:

• Are the two of you interested in sexual activity?
• What is your partner’s level of sobriety?
• Partner’s identity is verified with phone number and
  password.
• You are Good2Go if affirmative consent is given and your
  partner is not incapacitated.
• Good2Go provides privacy, facilitates communication, and
  reduces unwanted encounters and assaults.

Note that the app prompts users to verify their level of
intoxication. There are four options: “Sober,” “Mildly
Intoxicated,” “Intoxicated But Good2Go,” or “Pretty Wasted.” If the
user selects the last of these options, he or she is told by the
app that consent is not possible.

Some might wonder, what’s to prevent people from
lying? The creators have anticipated that issue and
address it here. Their
perspective is that if someone intends to lie, it’s no different
from lying with or without the app. At worst, the app would simply
have no effect in that case. More optimistically, the app could
deter liars by setting up another hoop for them to jump
through.

Lee Ann Allman, president of Sandton Technologies, created
Good2Go with her husband, Mike. They were inspired to do something
about sexual consent after listening to their college-aged
children—and their kids’ friends—wrestle with the issues.

“We had had ongoing discussions with them and a lot of their
friends around issues of affirmative consent,” Allman told Reason.
“They have seen firsthand how students at their own colleges have
been involved in investigations. They have come away from all of
this with a lot more confusion and worry and stress about what to
do. So out of those discussions, and legislation that has been
happening at the federal and state level, we all talked about,
well, is there something we can do? In this day and age, one of the
logical answers to that is, there ought to be an app for that.”

The app is not intended to be legally binding, although it could
serve as evidence in an investigation if a dispute arose at a later
time. But rather than clearing up matters after-the-fact, Allman is
optimistic that the process will proactively reduce assault by
clearing up misunderstandings before they happen.

Skeptics might say it’s too weird to ask people to use an app
before climbing into bed with them. But modern technology is
already changing how people find romantic and sexual partners.
Nowadays, people use apps like Grindr and Tindr to find sexual
partners all the time. Why can’t consent work the same way?

Good2Go is holding a rally in support of SB 967—the bill that
requires colleges to implement
tougher sexual consent standards—at Los Angeles City Hall later
today. Details here.