The UK Kink GuideEvidence-led glossaryAgreement limited to particular people, activities, conditions, timing or safeguards. Activity outside the agreed scope has not been authorised.
Manual claim and limitation notes are shown where an individual source audit is complete. Other evidence-type labels are a publisher aid awaiting source-by-source confirmation.
Consent & relationships
Illustration created using generative AI; not documentary evidence.
In brief
Consent answers a specific proposal, not an entire category of access. A person can agree only on stated conditions—such as privacy, barrier use, no recording or a defined activity—and can refuse everything else. Whether breach of a condition meets a particular criminal offence is a separate legal question.
Consent to one person, act, body area, intensity or occasion does not imply consent to another. Consent to be present, watch, flirt, undress or discuss a fantasy is not automatically consent to sexual activity.
Recording, sharing an image and the underlying activity are separate decisions. Privacy expectations should be explicit before any device is used.
Agreement to identified activity rather than general access to a person's body.
Agreement that depends on a stated condition remaining true.
Something desired but not necessarily made a condition of agreement; clear discussion reduces ambiguity.
A broad label that cannot remove the person's continuing legal and ethical right to choose.
An adult may make agreement dependent on barrier use, contraception, location, sobriety, a check-in or another condition. If the condition cannot be met, pause and seek a new freely made decision rather than silently substituting.
A condition should be understood by everyone it binds. Ambiguity is a reason to clarify, not to choose the broadest interpretation.
CPS guidance recognises conditional-consent cases in applying section 74 in England and Wales, but warns that the condition and all context must be considered. Different deceptions and breaches do not all have identical legal consequences.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate sexual-offence law. Individual cases require specialist legal assessment rather than conclusions drawn from a glossary example.
Ask what is included, excluded and subject to change. Repeat back important conditions and check again when circumstances shift.
Consent remains withdrawable even when every original condition is met. Fulfilling a condition is necessary to stay within scope, not a guarantee that consent continues.
Non-graphic examples
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Continue learning
Continue with independent guidance connecting specific and conditional consent to evidence, consent, safety, uncertainty and practical decisions.
Put consent and boundaries into practice in adult relationships, with usable refusals, check-ins, repair and UK support routes.
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Read the full guide Consent & relationshipsSafeword systems and non-verbal signalsHow adults can agree clear stop and pause signals, including accessible non-verbal options, without treating a signal as consent.
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