The thing that irritates us, is that most of the business world is quite happy to sexualise and exploit children. Case in point, look at childrens clothing, especially for young teenage girls. Visit any supermarket and really examine the clothing lines, today clothing is created to the same narratives of young women, that highlights and sexualises the image of a child. Companies now sell makeup designed for children under sixteen, and many parents encourage this. Social media is filled with video shorts of young 13 year old girls, who are monetized and making thousands for short videos where they pose to appear alluring, and the platform takes it's cut of the revenue. Tik Tok and Instagram in particular have driven these profiles and have made millions off the back of them, and more and more children flock to these sites, with their parents happy compliance. Everyone turns a blind eye when there is money to be made, and yet, even hint at naturism being for families including the children, and there is uproar.

The most frustrating aspect of this, is that there is a trail of evidence that reachs back for decades to prove the safety of children in naturism, as for generations children have attended regular clubs and societies and have indeed grown up with a naturist life, so much so, they too have naturist children of their own, and in some cases naturist grandchildren, all of them raised healthy and safely. 

It appears to us, that there is no money to made from naturism, and maybe that is the point, we have written a good few articles or blogs here on ANW that highlight how business is happy to accept manipulating and exploiting anyone for gain, but say the words body confident, or well rounded, and suddenly the whole media explodes in a frenzy, and that is what is causing companies to run scared, they fear publicity, even BN, which could have handled the Blackpool incident better. It was 3 people with extreme views that got the Sandcastle event shut down, and even BN who advocate for all naturists, backed off and pulled out. The example that set, was to run scared, and since that time, more and more places have started to add that dreaded banner for naturism, 'Adults Only.'

We feel it is time to claim back our space, because traditionally naturism is exactly that, 'A Family Space' and as a community of people who understand all the benefits of the naturist family life, we must start to speak out and challenge those who advertise adult only, because Anna is quite correct, without new blood coming into the lifestyle, it will without doubt die. There are a great many young people who embrace their nudity, but they shy away from clubs and organisations, and some of that is partly due to the fact that these places discourage families. NKD is a great example of work done by BN to try and address this issue, and looking at the images posted on BN, it was clear, that they were sucessful, as children ran around with young people and adults enjoying the event.

There is a need for more, and BN and all other national organisations need to do more, and a good example of that would be Spain. Look at their beaches, look at how every generation is at ease and comfortable with the nudity, even those in clothes have no objection and understand it is not shameful. The UK, Austrailia and the USA have a long way to go, but without naturists standing up and speaking in unison for the right of familes to share naturist locations we will never see change. Anna is right, we all need to ask questions of the places we visit and ask why there is an Adult only policy, and then be advocates for change.

I am surprised that I didn't reply to this topic before!

Not too long ago the image of a naked child was considered a kind-hearted portrait of innocence and purity.  It would be a reminder of our youthful past, when we were happy and content with just our naked selves.  Somewhere somehow we let the sick mind of a few take over this image of purity and turn it into something completely opposite and even evil.  Sad as it is, pedophilia is only one cause why naturists decide to cloth their children, and support the ban of images of naked kids.  I mean this mental disorder has been around proably since the beginning of time, so it cannot be the only reason why there are fewer naturist children and naturist families.

I think the true reason for the decline of family naturism is that we naturists do not actively pass on naturism to our kids.  We let our children decide whether they want to remain naturists once they want to decide on their own.  Nothing wrong with that but at the same time we do not tell them why we are naturists and why we bring them up as such.  We do not do anything to attract them to stay in naturism.  We let facilities for children in clubs go into disrepair and stopped the family activities.  Meanwhile elsewhere recreation continues to evolve and becomes more and more attracive to children, teens and even adults.  We just assume that because we let our children go nude when they were little kids, they will still stay nude when they are teenagers or adults.  We know it is our wishful thinking, but somehow we let things flow through their own course, and the obvious outcome ensues.

Forty years ago in the hay days of naturism, naturist leaders were passionate in promoting naturism among their peers who are parents with children.  When their children moved away from naturism, it left this void we are now in.  The pioneers, now in the retirement age, are the only ones who remained in organized naturism and inevitably the movement slows down.  We need new families to come in to fill this void and provide the energy to revitalize it.  These new families need to be coached by the pioneers who went through the think and thin fighting opponents of naturism, and authorities that pursue their interest to shut down naturism so that they don't have to deal with it anymore.  Naturist families can still turn things around, if we work together and learn from naturism's past and its mistakes.  The first step is to find out where they have been hiding, and I hope this forum could provide some clues!

I agree paedophilia has in deed been around for ever and there is more at work here than that. Though I think two things are in play on that score - 1st it is discussed and for want of a better word or to be ironic "promoted" now more than ever before. What was once a crime that people didn't like to think about is now a crime that the media encourages us to think about constantly. 2nd - the internet has made it a much easier crime to access. Certainly when it comes to the sharing of images. We have stumbled across images involving children (on so called naturist/nudist sites) that we would never have seen in all of our lives prior to the internet. These two things I think make child abuse much more of a modern, every day concern than it ever was before. In some ways this can be good - bringing awareness to a crime and encourage victims to speak out. But in more ways this can be bad. False accusations, hatred of those incorrectly accused, wholesale paranoia and giving those that perform the crime great power. These people are bullies, cowards and weak - the strength that their crimes now have in public passion must make them not just in control of their young victims but also somehow in control of the whole world. No longer do they damage a minority but through large scale panic they damage everyone. They must love it to see innocent people and life choices being victims of their crime. Not just naturism, but many other aspects of childhood, society and life are effected - instead of feeling pathetic they must feel empowered. 

I have just written in my latest H&E article "naturism hasn't changed: it is just as healthy and beneficial as ever. Maybe what has changed is our fear of appearing like parents who are not caring and protective. It isn't so much about not doing the right thing, but the possibility that we may be considered to be doing the wrong thing. Children need many experiences. Children flourish in naturism. We are in danger of safeguarding them out of having any adventures and diminishing their ability to look after themselves when they eventually fly the nest. Children need to learn to trust others; can they do that when their parents seemingly trust no one?" 

Just as celebrities want to distance themselves from anyone who has the slightest amount of dirt thrown at them (if if completely innocent). People want to ensure that they are not judged as bad even if they know they are behaving completely innocent. Naturism is a victim of such behaviour. I know what I am doing is fine, and it is totally OK for children, but what if others think differently and judge me. 

The world seems to be obsessed by being judged - the moment we started taking selfies for Facebook we stopped living for the real moment and started living for the likes. Each moment, each meal, each thought, each birthday, each death has become one of trends, hash tags and thumbs up. I know ANW is social  media but I like to think it stays real and has more of a depth to it. We like things not because we feel obliged to, or want to be liked back, but because some things in this world are actually worthy of liking. I think parents fear naturism for their children - partly because of a fear of others not understanding - not liking - not giving it the subconscious thumbs up. 

When I chatted with parents who were pulling out of some events due to protests a couple of years back. The reason they all used without fail was the fear of being brandished on social media, having photos taken in the queue and being called names, insulted and placed on social media for others to misjudge. They didn't seem to fear the protest itself but the backlash of the protest. Being seen as perverts on social media and the possibility that people they know may see that and that strangers definitely would.

The internet has had a massive effect on naturism in so many ways and it has mainly been very bad. I think even some of the things considered positive are actually not that positive - most of it is just open to voyeurism and another form of armchair information - there isn't much out there that actually encourages others to naturism - there isn't much that says - "Give it a go!" and results in people doing just that. Most of the time we see naturists on social media we see them through our naturist eyes - "Good for them" we think but what we need to do is consider how they come over to people with non-naturist eyes - do that and the likelihood is you would think "Why are they showing me their naked body? Are they simply odd balls of exhibitionists? Are they getting a kick from this?" Most people simply will not consider a naked image and a short sentence about normalising nudity to be anything but an excuse for these people to expose themselves to others. Consider the idea of being in a pub and seeing someone alone walk in in the nude. They would appear perverse, troublesome or crazy. Sadly most naturist on social media will appear the same. Facebook, Twitter etc is overwhelmingly dressed walk in in the nude and the last thing you appear in normal. As naturists we get it, but as non-naturists ...we are hardly going to strip off and order a pint. It is for this reason we have naturist events, that we join clubs and organised gatherings - to not be judged to be a crazy lonely person. I think that is why ANW works - together we really are normal - and that is why I don't go on social media and flash my body - but go on social media and say things like: have you considered naturism - why not visit ANW and find out about it - it is not shocking, or out of place or unusual - that is the real normal. 

We need to do so much more for families - there is so much in the last two comments above that are so relevant and true. Looking at facilities, looking at parents educating their children, looking at lessons from the past, changing the move to Adult Only, becoming less fearful of naturism and becoming less accepting of the sexualisation of the young on the internet. 

Going back to the internet and social media these people who promote naturism do so surrounded by other adults promoting other adult past times - sexual sharing is the other biggie that involves nudity, but there is so much more other talk and images out there and none of it is really family friendly - politics, woke issues, hate talk, celebrity gossip, plastic surgery, money, war, cookie style adverts and pop-ups, look how that celebrity has aged,  look at that celebrities house, conspiracy theories,  try this latest weight loss drug etc etc - why would anyone consider a picture of a 40 year old naturist saying Normalise nudity to be anything about families - the internet is never about families - even the you-tube, tik toks etc that are aimed at children - are aimed only at children - the % of interest for families on the internet is negligible and probably most of it is websites for theme parks and zoos.

You are right about the internet being all bullies and shamers, especially social media. It is encouraged as divison is the tactic of sales. Advertisers struggle to sell to groups, which is why the internet is filled with targeted adverts tailored to the individual, and why families are ignored. It is far easier to target a child and get them so excited about a product that they will badger a parent until they finally give in and make the purchase.

Internet child porn is a serious issue, there are teams of specialist working night and day to track these sites down, most of them on the deep web. And to a degree raising awareness has helped, but it is also part of the problem. When I worked for Childline, we were very aware of the problem, and 10% of the callers were adults pretending to be children, but the facts which no body really looks at, are that the amount of actual asaults sexually have not risen in number a great deal over the years, they have remained relatively stable. Today children do not face a significant threat in their daily lives any more than they would have thirty years ago. Another important factor is that most children are asualted by someone they know, it is very rarely a stranger, as in the majority of cases it tends to be the Father/Mother/Sibling or a close relative. Yes, unpopular as it sounds, women are as likley to asault a child as a man, the old adage of its all men, does not apply, just as many cases involve female abusers.

The biggest change in abuse has not come from the abusers, it has come from the media, who with 24/7 broadcasting and ratings wars, constantly fight to get all the best stories for their channel. In their rush to be the top rated show, they have cast common sense to the winds in favour of sensationaism, and that has opend the flood gates to the creation of mass hysteria, and panic. The simple truth is, abuse was once brushed under the carpet, and today it is reported, and that is the most significant change, we now know it happens, where as thirty years ago and beyond, it was hidden out of shame to families.

The odds of a sex offender getting into a family naturist event and actually asaulting a minor, are beyond substatially low, and almost impossible. Sex offenders need time, space, and complete issolation in order to act, and at a busy event, especially with every parent on gaurd, it is simply impossible for them to act. Should we all be watchful, well yes, we should treat every situation they way we would normally, it is no different to watching over the children as they play in park, or are out shopping with us.

It is controversial to say this, but hey it's me, and I preffer honest open and direct, but if someone starts to yell and scream abuse and accuses a person of all kinds of sick and twisted things for being a naturist, one has to ask the very real question. "Why would someone think that?" What kind of mind would make such disgraceful and disgusting remarks about another person, how does anyone even remotely think those things? The truth is, the accusers and shamers are equally as sick as the accusations they make, no normal decent human being would even consider such things, and that is the most overlooked aspect of all of the issues pertaining to family naturism. These people tend to have control issues, large ego's, and are very attention seeking, they feed of the attention and love the publicity, as they walk with their heads high, basking in their own superiority, that is a well accepted fact that every therapist knows.

Anna touched on this a little bit which I want to highlight.  Under the current British Law, to accuse a naturist of being a pervert or child abuser, is in fact 'Hate Speech' and you have the legal right to prosecute these people, which although an unpopular thought, I felt BN should have done over the Blackpool event. It is also 'Slander and defamation of Character or an organisation' and BN should have pressed charges for the disgusting comments made about it's members. Had they done that, and made the press more than aware of it, perceptions would have changed pretty damned fast, and it would have resotred common sense to the conversation.

The biggest task we face, is the fall out which was managed badly, has sent ripples throughout the whole world of naturism, and there is now almost a knee jerk reaction to anything remotely containing children to close up and hide away in hope of not been stuck in the spotlight. It is a false perception, because the simple truth is, those who spew their vile rhetoric are few and far between. It is now up to families to gather and talk, on platforms such as this one, and organise, BN is not the only outlet for naturism, and families need to come together and work as one to restore the balance of wholesome happy family natuirism, and that can only start in organisations and on forums. BN lacks people who would speak up for families, so do other organisations, and Clubs as a.b.y.a.C clearly vocalised should be more open to working with families to restoring the balance.

It starts with just one naturist approaching an event or club, and asking, and then families need to jump in and give support. If one local club, has a family day, and allows families to travel to attend it, then a signal will be sent out to other clubs, and then it could starty a trend. This year we went on holiday to Cornwall, we did have two amazing days on the beachs with Anna and Steve, we did post to ANW we wanted others to join us, and had other made the leap, it could have been ten families on the beach.

That is the point, we do not need national organisations, they help, but if they are unwilling, well then, let us all organise ourselves. It can be done, and with people on here blogging and posting, and also on national forums talking about what an amazing time it was, that will plant the seeds of future events, and that starts the possiblity of bring families back to where they belong in natuirism.

Food for thought. Lets talk more.

 

I say we just start small, but start regardless.  Family and kids camps in my opinion are excellent way to get families together and enthusiastic on the topic.  Kids will have big fun doing things together.  Adults will find it the safest naturist environment for their kids because all parents work together to take care of all the kids.   It's the easiest way for everyone see what normalized nudity really is - no one will care that they are naked and how long they have been naked until they need to put clothes back on.  Do also check out the latest episode of the Naturist Living Show, and Ep 20 and 23 of the New Nudist Podcast.  Great examples of other naturists pushing the same envelope!