Honestly, I am falling more and more in love with the CRISP consent model. SSC (Safe, Sane, and Consensual) and FRIES (consent should be Freely given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, Specific) are great baseline models for beginners to learn and I'd recommend any bdsm newcomers to start with those concepts. They're easy to grasp and cover most scenarios a newbie bdsm-er may encounter.
However these consent models aren't all-encompassing, don't address risk, and in the case of FRIES, can actually be demonstrably incorrect (speaking specifically about the E in FRIES, Enthusiastic).
I'm not personally a fan of RACK (Risk Aware Consensual Kink) or PRICK (Personal Responsibility Informed Consensual Kink), as they are entirely focused on methods to mitigate risk and mostly only see use in kink spaces.
In the case of PRICK specifically, I actually advocate heavily against its use as a consent or kink activity framework because of how it centers the experience on individual responsibility during an activity and how one person can keep themselves safe without regard for the fact that sex and kink activities are generally done with more than one person. PRICK can be dangerous even when you follow its core tenets, and that's not what you want your framework doing.
Recently I learned about the CRISP model of consent, which was created by intimacy practitioners for use on set during film production of intimate scenes like childbirth or sex, and I think it addresses every major point about risk and consent in a neutral, all encompassing manner. And because I'm such a nerd about consent, I'm going to tell you all about it and have taken the liberty of transcribing CRISP from an intimacy coordinator perspective to a sex or BDSM perspective.
Considered: Actively take the time to deliberately consider whether or not to give consent. This includes looking at the practicality of the context of the situation itself (for example the question, "do we have enough time to do a sex?" would fall under 'considered') as well as any external factors influencing the situation such as gender, socioeconomic status, etc.
Reversible: What it says on the tin. Anybody participating in sex or kinky play can, at any time and for any reason, revoke consent and deserve to have their revocation both complied with AND respected.
Informed: Each party must be honestly communicating to one another and has a responsibility AND duty to be informed on the activity they're doing, informed on who they're doing it with, and informed of any relevant medical, mental, emotional, situational, or circumstantial risks. This tenet is necessary for the 'Considered' tenet to be acted upon responsibly and accurately.
Specific: Consent to one thing does not mean consent to something else; consent only applies within the terms it was agreed to by both parties and therefore there should be no ambiguity or vagueness in either party's intentions.
Participatory: Consent is ongoing before and after it is agreed upon, is a constant process of checking in with each other, and no one should be excluded or discouraged in any way from the process of any of the tenets above.
Now that last one, participatory, at first I actually didn't get and found it very confusing. But the more I have come to understand it and think about it, the more I think it's absolutely mandatory to include this in all consent models moving forward. It's the glue that holds any respectable framework together.
It's essentially protecting the integrity of the rest of the consent model. Participatory is basically saying that before, after, or during the process of agreeing to consent, anything done by violating the other tenets of the model, damages the integrity of the entire agreement and voids it. Consent must be re-established to continue at that point. It also states that consideration for consent doesn't stop once it's been agreed to and needs to be monitored for any changes throughout. You have a responsibility and duty to the other person, after all, to not bring harm to them. So you must be engaged, present, and participate in the act with them in order to fulfill that duty and responsibility.
The part that gets my goat is that 'participatory' could even be further extrapolated to mean that consent could be given ad-hoc in the moment so long as the other criteria are met, allowing for the wiggle room that often happens in realistic play encounters between experienced and trust-established partners. This is a longstanding issue that most consent models don't even acknowledge happens because they are far too rigid.
CRISP, however, is flexible within reason that it can allow for improvisation. Knowing where it originated from, which is intimacy practitioners, that flexibility is definitely not the intent, so I will exclude this as being an official part of the model. However I bring this up because I personally think it could very easily be incorporated into that last tenet so that it acknowledges how real people play and how we can continue to affirm consent while we improvise.
I can't properly express how much I am nerding out about this and am such a fan of this consent model. This model allows for all kinds of sex and kink activities to be included and accounted for. That's not always been true for certain activities, especially when it comes to lifestyle dynamics or edge play. But CRISP includes those activities and guides folks on how to start doing and continue doing them safely and responsibly.
Sometimes consent isn't enthusiastic, but it's still perfectly valid consent. Sometimes consent models aren't focused on everyone involved. Sometimes consent models don't address risk at all, or they entirely focus on it to its own detriment. CRISP does all of these things and does them well. It acknowledges that enthusiasm is not inherent to consent, it addresses how to handle risk, and it implements risk management in the overall process for how to determine if consent has been established, is still present, and what factors could contribute to the violation or unwilling manipulation of one's consent. It's amazing!
And I encourage everyone to start thinking in terms of CRISP because of how cohesively it encompasses many different aspects of sex, play, and relationship dynamics and gives people a universal framework that is healthy and respectful to all involved. It's really just putting into words how a healthy sexual or intimate interaction works under the hood and takes away all the mystery or doubt surrounding consent.
There's a practical universal model for how consent works called CRISP and you should read about why it's so good above.
