A sexual abuse charity has accused London‘s mayor of failing to protect children from naked cyclists in the capital.
Sir Sadiq Khan ‘could do so much more than he does’ to protect children from exposure to nudity during London’s naked bike ride, according to a campaigner.
The annual event sees adults cycle naked through the capital – which would usually lead to their arrest – in a protest against car culture and oil dependency.
But critics of the ride have said a lack of participant registration, marshalling on the route and protections to prevent children being exposed to adult nudity are cause for concern.
‘There’s a really grey area in the UK,’ said Emma Jane Taylor, founder of sexual abuse charity Project 90-10.
‘The next day [after the bike ride], if you go and do that you’ll be arrested. How come on this day it’s had the green light?’
London’s World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) has run since 2004 and is set to return on June 14 after 1,200 riders took part last year.
Its organisers said the ride was not meant to cause alarm or distress but to celebrate body positivity.
Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, deliberately exposing one’s genitals must be done with intent to cause alarm or distress to become indecent exposure.
London’s naked bike ride, which has run since 2004, attracted 1,200 riders last year
The ride is aimed at promoting body positivity but participants could be arrested if they repeated such behaviour outside the event
That offence can carry a penalty of up to two years in prison and a place on the sex offenders’ register.
Now Ms Taylor has started a petition calling for the Government to review the event’s legal and safeguarding position and encouraging Sir Sadiq to intervene.
She said: ‘The mayor could do so much more than he does, and he just doesn’t do enough when it comes to protecting children and families and having sensible conversations.’
Ms Taylor’s petition said there were no identity or DBS checks used for the race and ‘no way to distinguish genuine participants from opportunists’.
The petition calls for the Government to review the ‘legal and safeguarding implications of allowing full public nudity in an unregulated, open access event’.
Ms Taylor said her effort was not against ‘protest or free expression’ but rather a ‘call for consistent law, child protection and basic safeguarding standards that apply equally to all public events’.
Last year, a WNBR participant was punched off his bike by a binman who mistook him for a ‘pervert’.
Robert Brown, 59, was cycling nude through Colchester, Essex, for a charity bike event in August when he was assaulted by a binman.
WNBR said it was aware of Ms Taylor’s petition, adding: ‘We understand that she is a social media influencer who promotes body fitness and good looks.
The founder of a child sexual abuse charity has said London’s mayor Sir Sadiq Khan should do more to protect children from being exposed to adult nudity during the event
‘This is the type of harmful influence that we campaign against in the body positivity theme of WNBR.’
A spokesman for the event said: ‘Our body positivity/body acceptance theme is all about having a sensible attitude to the human body instead of suffering from the angst of body image and peer pressure for abnormal sexual activity. We all have bodies, we are all different and that’s OK.
‘The World Naked Bike Ride is a peaceful, lawful protest that intends to get its messages across by generating public interest. We want other road users and spectators to be pleasantly surprised and take notice. We do not behave badly! There is no ‘grey area’ in terms of the law.’
He added: ‘No part of our campaign is aimed at children. We do ask that any children on the ride are properly dressed, and supervised by a parent or responsible adult. Many naturist families would be offended if we said their children were not welcome.’
A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: ‘This is an operational policing decision for the Met.’