UW-Madison students create Snapchat filter to promote consent

Get consent

UW-Madison students have created a Snapchat filter to remind students about the importance of consent this Halloween weekend.

The Snapchat filter says, “Get Consent this Halloweekend”and will be available in dorms, dining halls, and unions starting Thursday Oct.27- Saturday Oct. 29 from 8pm to 3am.

Snapchat filter created by Lana Scholtz

Four UW-Madison students, Justine Jones, Tyriek Mack, Marisa Skelley, and Ella Sklaw, came up with this idea as a way to create a conversation about consent.

Sklaw said her and her friends recognized UW-Madison has a huge sexual assault problem, and they wanted to give students the opportunity to think about consent outside of the mandatory Tonight program.

One in four women will be sexually assaulted during her time at this university, and with 30,000 (43,193) students, about half of whom are women that’s a massive portion of people who are being sexually assaulted,” Sklaw said.

One of the things motivating Sklaw to work on this project is the nondiscriminatory nature of sexual assault.

“With that one in four number sexual assault is something that inserts itself into every single community on this campus, no community of people, no sports group, no social club is safe from it.”

The group wanted to create something that would meet students where they were at, and they recognized students are always on their phones and on Snapchat, Skelley said.

Skelley said, by creating this Snapchat filter students don’t have to go out of their way to learn about sexual assault or think about it, the importance of consent is available on an app students use everyday.

“We thought how do we bring consent directly to students, and then the idea of the Snapchat filter was born. Students are on their phone all of the time. If you are on your phone Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, your friends are constantly posting pictures on Snapchat and your checking them, because you’re like what are my friends doing,” Skelley said.

The Snapchat filter is being sponsored by UW-Madison, and next semester it will be available every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night from 8pm to 3am.

According to Sklaw and Skelley, they are hoping to run a competition where students can design their own filter and submit it, and a new filter will be chosen every weekend.

Sklaw said the purpose of the filter is to remind students of the importance of consent while they are getting ready in their dorms, eating in the dining halls or hanging out with friends at the unions. Having this knowledge is a step forward in preventing sexual assault.

“This is a preventative public health reminder to everybody,” Sklaw said. “We’re happy the university is looking to improve and actively improving.”

 

 

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