joining us for the detroit city tour on saturday, oct 21? Click here for our itinerary!
In addition to our keynote plenaries, the Securing Sexuality Conference offers two learning tracks: one focused on technology & intimacy and one emphasizing mental health & sexuality. Attendees are NOT locked into a specific track and may attend workshops from either track, based on personal interest. 

Additionally, attendees will be able to explore our Experiential Learning Village as well, where experts from multiple technological and sexological disciplines will be available to offer demonstrations and discuss their respective areas of interest one on one or in small groups. 

In addition to eight hours per day of structured learning, attendees are invited to network and socialize, cheering during their favorite game show style competitions and making new friends at our Thursday night Hoodie-Cardie Party.
9:00 - 10:00 am

Believe Them: ADHD, AFAB, and Online Social Support Systems

Presenter: Erika Miley

​ADHD is one of the most researched neurological disorders. That has not been the case for AFAB people and their experiences of ADHD over their lifespan. More specifically there has been no investigation of their experiences sexually and how ADHD may impact their experiences and their ability to experience sexual pleasure and connect with partners. In this talk listeners can expect to learn how AFAB people describe their understanding of how their symptoms of ADHD impact their sexual experiences and their bodies generally. Also expect to learn about how online communities on Reddit have become huge places of support, misinformation, solidarity, and sharing of personal medical information. Listeners will also receive tips for improving their sexual experiences that are supportive of ADHD or other neurodivergence.  

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to identify and correct at least three pervasive myths about ADHD specific to AFAB people. 

Participants will be able to analyze first-person experiences with ADHD symptoms and sexual functioning and respond appropriately.

​Participants will be able to describe in detail the benefits of online community support while also exploring of the risks. 

“Screw You, Pay Me”- The Problem of Banking Access for Sex-Related Workers

Presenter: Shakun Sethi​
​
As we engage in discussions surrounding financial inclusivity, one cannot overlook the persistent problem of financial marginalization for sex-related workers. The systemic and institutional biases against this industry, encompassing a diverse range of professionals – content creators, sex workers, sex educators, and sexologists – persistently hamper their financial autonomy and career decision-making processes. In this talk, Shakun Sethi will peel back the layers on this often-overlooked aspect of financial accessibility, unpacking sex-related workers' difficulties in accessing essential banking and financial services. We will examine historical and socio-cultural underpinnings that have contributed to the prevailing prejudices and resulting institutional discrimination.
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Yet, this discourse is more than just a dissection of the challenges. It is also a quest to explore innovative and pragmatic solutions that can bridge the gap between sex-related professionals and their rightful access to financial services. Join Shakun Sethi in this enlightening conversation as we grapple with the intricate intersection of social norms, professional biases, financial rights, and the need to disrupt and dismantle entrenched barriers. By doing so, we aim to construct a more equitable vision for financial access that recognizes and respects all forms of work and promotes individual autonomy in career choices.

Outcomes 
Participants will be able to describe at least three challenges facing clients and providers who do sex-related work and the impact these have on career and quality of life.

Participants will be able to describe at least three systemic barriers that prevent clients and providers who do sex-related work from achieving financial and economic independence.

Participants will be able to assess institutional systems for financial barriers and sex-work related bias and critique the same.
10:00 - 11:00 am

You Give Love a Bad Name: Social Engineering and Violence Against Women in Online Dating

Presenter: Aunshul Rege

With an estimated 8,000 sites and 366 million users globally, the online dating industry generated $2.86 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $3.6 billion by 2025. However, these platforms serve as conduits for an assortment of crimes, such as scams, stalking, sexual harassment, rape and assault, and murder. This paper explores the current state of violence against women via online dating platforms through the lens of social engineering (psychological persuasion to manipulate individuals), how they manifest online and offline, and proposes how online daters can empower themselves by using the social engineering framework to protect themselves. It also highlights the potential future of online dating crimes with the increase in deepfakes, ChatGPT, and artificial intelligence.
 
Outcomes: 
Participants will be able to explain three ways in which women are targeted for exploitation or abuse online.

Participants will be able to define social engineering and offer at least three examples of social engineering in a dating/romance context.

Participants will be able to analyze social engineering methods and proactively apply them to improve safety for themselves and clients.

The Rise of Digital Sex Work

Presenter: Kurt Fowler

The Internet has revolutionized sex work perhaps more than any other profession. Today’s sex workers go online to attract clients, shape personas, share information, screen potential clients, and build community. The Rise of Digital Sex Work is an intimate look into the changing face of the industry, telling the stories of workers themselves and revealing how they use the internet to share information, grow their businesses, and establish global communities.
 
Kurt Fowler takes us inside the lives of sex workers who provide a variety of services: web-camming, dominatrix work, burlesque, and escorting. He provides insight into how race, class, and privilege affect their work and the role the internet has played in their professional journeys. Drawing on in-depth interviews with fifty workers from the United States, England, Canada, Germany, Australia, South Africa, and other industrialized countries, Fowler explores how they first entered the profession, how they manage their daily business and client relationships, their use of digital technology for safety and as a broader social resource, the role race plays in their work, and how they view their own level of risk and that of fellow sex workers. Fowler provides a look inside sex workers’ digital worlds, as well as the complex meanings they attach to their experiences in their line of work.
 
Outcomes:
Participants will be able to recognize sex work as a valid form of labor with many styles and varieties

Participants will be able to realize that cultural views of sex work are often biased

Participants will be able to reduce stigma in both individual and social capacitates

Participants will be able to reevaluate sex work legislation with better understanding of parameters

Participants will be able to respectfully include active workers for policy debates and discussions
11:00 - 12:00 pm: KEYNOTE PLENARY

Manosphere For Sale
Dr. Nicole Prause, Liberos Center

Scientists have described a surge in a manosphere 'protection racket’, where online influencers create an imaginary threat, then sell the solution back to men (Bujalka et al., 2022). Semen retention/NoFap are anti-masturbation groups in the manosphere. They have become the most popular male sexual health topic on TikTok and Instagram, which appears to be primarily medical disinformation (Dubin et al., 2022) selling various services to help men remain abstinent from masturbation. Many of their accounts claim to offer cures for "erectile dysfunction", typically defined inappropriately as any erectile variability. Many of these accounts also claim to cure "pornography addiction", which is not a recognized diagnosis in any nomenclature. Some of the groups have opposed the scientific study of their claims by threatening scientists' safety and careers and that of their families, a tactic first described in research on terrorism, to intimidate the study of these public health claims. This talk will review the available data on the claimed health effects and violence present in these online groups, both online and real-world associations with mass murders. Clinical interventions are being designed to assist young men in leaving these manosphere groups due to the likelihood of harm.

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to describe the health claims being made by manosphere groups for which clients may seek help.

Participants will be able to identify pathological symptoms that involvement with these groups may increase.

​Participants will be able to use theoretical models of manosphere terrorism to identify potentially effective interventions that assist men leaving these groups.
12:00 - 1:00 pm: INTERACTIVE LUNCH

Lunch + Learn:  A Tribute to Jeopardy

Presenter: Ben Miller

Join us in the Main Ballroom for lunch (included in your conference registration) and cheer on our three contestants as they compete in SexTech Jeopardy! With categories ranging from laws pertaining to intimacy and relationships, to sexological history, to cybersecurity best practices (and many others!) you'll spend your lunch hour laughing AND learning in a casual setting that will challenge your brain while nourishing your body. 

Outcomes: 
Participants will be able to describe at least three ways in which the legal landscape for gender, sexuality, and relationship minorities has changed in America over the last 15 years. 

Participants will be able to implement at least three new personal security and digital safety strategies.

Participants will be able to identify at least three prominent figures in the history of sexuality and describe their contributions. 
1:00 - 2:00 pm

Polyamorous and Kink Community Use of Discord For Organizing

Presenter: Laura Boyle

Historically, online interactions of both polyamorous and kink communities have been held in private and quasi-anonymous groups on Facebook, Fetlife, and other social media. Because of Term of Service concerns on Fetlife (a major kink social network) many kink organizers have moved to Discord servers in order to discuss community issues of safety, even if they are not using them for primary event organization. 
 
Additionally, because of privacy concerns (there were major security leaks at some of these sites in the last few years) and features offered by Discord, polyamorous and kink communities began using these during the pandemic for social organization. Increasingly they are used by both communities to replace Fetlife, Twitter, and Facebook groups, lists, and events of the past. Community leaders are increasingly expected to also be server moderators. 
 
There are positive and negative effects of this; on the positive side the greater and more granular controls of how to admit people to smaller sub-communities are often helpful for safety and sharing information about consent violations and abuse that was banned under the fetlife ToS and required vagueposting and innuendo to work around. It also allows for wider-scale and non-local polycule organization and socializing - there are the equivalent of Facebook groups for polyam people organized by interests, regions, or for extended polycules organized like kinship and support networks. 
 
On the negative side, because these discord-server communities require invitations, are a step more private & a step more technically involved than the previously existing options on facebook and fetlife (which just required registering for accounts and knowing that groups existed), there is a greater level of difficulty of access for new members of community. This can be a challenge for folks joining these communities, for older folks in the community who don’t want a heavily digital experience, and for organizers who are trying to bridge the gap between in person and digital communities. 
 
The technical “buy-in” can also be a little high for the folks who are typically the most involved in social organization in polyam communities - the young women and mothers who fuel buy-nothing groups, free-barter-help pages, etc, and do a lot of the scheduling behind polycules were (are) slower to adopt Discord as a platform and moderate in different styles than the stereotypical mods of these groups. The pandemic to some extent drove adoption of the platform by this group.

This talk addresses the shifts in use by these communities to organize local and regional communities for safety & social organization purposes from 2019 to date, with a focus on the New England kink and polyamorous scenes as case studies. 

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to discuss the challenges and common work-arounds of sharing safety, consent violation, and abuse information within local kink communities.

Participants will be able to compare effects of different venues of organizing for these communities.

Participants will be able to recognize the small and medium scale social-organizing purposes of “extended polycules” and local polyamorous communities.

Surveillance Without Borders: Anti-Trans Tracking Across America

Presenter: Albert Fox Cahn

With growing numbers of states enacting anti-trans legislation to attack gender-affirming medical care and full public participation in public life for trans residents, it’s easy to think that more progressive states will be a safe haven. Sadly, the ever-growing power of surveillance technology and increasing political pressure to apply culture war legislation extraterritorially may soon create a dynamic where state officials seek to track and punish healthcare and other activity beyond their borders. Whether it’s tracking out-of-state residents who visit for a brief period, or monitoring when residents secure medical treatment out of state, surveillance is poised to give many state-level initiatives national power  and lay the framework for a constitutional crisis.
 
Outcomes:
Participants will be able to describe at least three modern forms of police surveillance and explain their impact on gender minorities.;
 
Participants will be able to define and critique extraterritorial application of state law.
 
Participants will be able identify and explain at least three privacy preserving countermeasures.
2:00 - 3:00 pm

Safeguarding Pleasure: Navigating Risks in Internet-Connected Sex Toys

Presenters: Nicole Schwartz and Renderman

The world is increasingly connected by the Internet of Things (IoT), and adult sex toy devices have not been left behind. In this presentation, you will learn the fundamentals of how these Internet-connected adult toys function and the potential risks associated with their online connectivity. We will review what to consider when purchasing and cover strategies to help mitigate risks during setup and usage. Additionally, we will address the unique challenges that arise during the dissolution of a relationship with a partner with whom the device was previously shared. Much of this advice also applies to those who might use these devices professionally, and we will also highlight additional concerns and considerations for those working in the adult industry or involved in adult device manufacturing.
 
Outcomes:
Participant will be able to explain to others how most internet connected adult devices work. 

Participants will be able to describe what risks are present to home users and professional users of internet connected adult devices. 

Participants will be able to describe ways to mitigate risks when setting up internet connected adult devices. 

Dating Like a Hacker: Security Do’s and Don’ts for Personal and Professional Profiles

Presenter: Rachel Arnold
​
In a time when human connection increasingly occurs online, understanding the principles of privacy and cybersecurity becomes crucial, both professionally and personally. From dating profiles to Psychology Today listings, being asked to identify ourselves in deeply personal ways has become a new norm in online social engagement... but should we be doing this at all? And if so, how can we do so in a way that preserves as much of our individual privacy as possible? In this talk, participants will delve into practices to help ensure their digital footprints are secure and their identities are shielded from harmful entities, explore strategies derived from ethical hacking to protect ones online data and privacy, and learn to conduct a self-audit for online vulnerabilities. By harnessing the mindset of a hacker, attendees will learn to navigate their digital lives with greater assurance of safety and control.

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to evaluate the information they are displaying online, determine who can see it, and identify at least 2 steps they can take to minimize risk. 

Participants will be able to explain the current information reporting requirements for healthcare providers and identify at least 3 ways in which providers can obfuscate their protected personal information (PPI). 

Participants will learn how to leverage digital tools to monitor their online reputation and address incorrect or malicious information posted by others. 
3:00 - 4:00 pm

Reconnecting to the Sexual Self After Trauma: Using Sex Toys as a Therapeutic Tool

Presenters: Bianca Alba & Venessa Farn

Survivors of trauma often struggle to feel sexually connected to themselves and others. Sex therapists, coaches and educators must be prepared to understand and help their clients navigate the special challenges to sexual health and wellness presented by past experiences of trauma. This workshop will be presented by a sex therapist specializing in trauma, and a trauma informed sex researcher specializing in using sex toys for sexual health promotion.

The workshop will begin with an accessible overview of how trauma impacts sexuality with findings from research, as well as offering some key techniques for working with survivors in clinical and professional settings. From there, we will offer guidance on how professionals can empower clients to embark on a solo pleasure practice using sex toys such as vibrators and dilators. Sex toys can often facilitate survivors reconnecting to their bodies and sexuality in a safe, pleasurable way, and in many cases they can also prepare them to explore partnered intimacy as well, if desired. We will discuss how to address any internalized stigma or discomfort around the idea of using sex toys therapeutically, and present several case studies from people who have successfully used these methods for healing and integration to help attendees understand how sex toys can best be used for therapeutic purposes.

​We will discuss recommended techniques for navigating specific issues such as vaginismus, pelvic pain, emotional flooding, and dissociation. Lastly, selecting a sex toy can be a very confusing and costly process, so we will also offer research-based recommendations for sex toys with specific therapeutic value, to cut down on the guesswork around selecting the best toy for an individual’s needs.

Please note: this workshop will center working trauma survivors with vulvas/vaginas as this reflects the area of research and expertise of the presenters, we acknowledge that survivors of trauma include people of all sexes and genders. 
 
Outcomes:
Participants will be able to understand how sexual trauma can affect sexual function and will be able to provide affect regulation skills to support clients in their counseling and therapy practice.

Participants will be able to recognize the therapeutic value of incorporating sex toys into sexual trauma recovery and identify appropriate toys for optimal recovery.

​Participants will be able to provide research- based recommendations for shopping for sex toys for clients and clinicians alike.

Saving Ryan's Privates

Presenter: Johnny Xmas
​
You did everything right: a long and hard password, the thing that sends a code to your phone, and you even used a VPN even though you don’t know what it does but that girl on Youtube said it keeps hackers away. Everything, and yet…there they are: those full frontals you sent to your SO 3 years ago, now splayed across some website with a weird name like “Coomer.party.” How did this happen? You don’t know, but Johnny does. Come sit in as he discusses the nonexistence of privacy, the most common methods of theft of private photos, and what you can do about it.

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to conceptualize and describe the infrastructure and pervasiveness of Cloud Storage, including associated personnel

Participants will be able to define basic Object-Capability Security concepts such as the Principle of Least Privilege and Ambient Authority

Participants will be able to describe and implement at least two basic methods of determining attack surface and threat landscape for protecting sensitive items 
4:00 - 5:00 pm

Pro-Social Sadism: Using Techniques of Trolling to Combat Online Consent Violations

Presenter: Midori

In this talk, kink educator and performance artist Midori will discuss her first-hand experiences as a public facing sexuality educator and the unwanted attention her work attracts. Through the use of humor, communications technologies such as Google Translate and Chat GPT, and clearly defined opt-in consent language, Midori has created a new framework for responding to inappropriate online messages that has helped her (and many others) recontextualize these encounters from wounding moments of fear and frustration into something empowering and even educational. Join Midori as she shares some of her best examples of “pro-social trolling” and explores the ways in which intentional subversion of how we are supposed to respond to verbal violations has created new opportunities for her to teach about consent in online spaces. Come prepared to laugh… everyone featured in this presentation consented to being used for your amusement.

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to define pro-social sadism and offer at least three examples of pro-social sadism in everyday life.

Participants will assess the strengths and drawbacks of using assistive communicative technologies such as Google Translate and Chat GPT in online communication.

Participants will analyze the ethical considerations at play when sending or receiving nonconsensual messages via social media, email, or other online forums. 

It All Begins With NO: Navigating the Spectrum of Consent In the Modern Tech Age

Presenter: Jasmonae Joyreal

This presentation explores how violations of the erotic occur within personal and professional spaces and describes the consequences that follow. One underappreciated and under acknowledged consequence is ‘feeling violated’ or feeling you violated another. This emotionally devastating experience is defined as the grey area existing between consent and assault, which is further complicated in the age of modern technology where boundaries become more inexplicit.

To confront and prevent further psychological injury in an already under-attended area within interpersonal relationships, it is necessary to examine the intersectionality of consent and technology in this evolving technological landscape. Not only can consent be violated, the nature of such violations may extend beyond intentionality and/or awareness. This can include permissions existing around the right to record, view, or distribute private and/or public acts of eroticism. In a public performance this can shift from performer to performer and from audience member to audience member and may include any type identifying information shared via audio, film, or other medium. Technology also opens up a more nuanced space of rescinding consent following the dissolution of personal and/or professional relationships. Finally, consent is examined against the backdrop of professional boundaries and ethics. As more industries seek to research, educate, teach, and counsel, professionals face the challenge of managing erotic autonomy with professional responsibility.
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We must challenge the binary approach to discussing consent or non-consent and need to reframe the conversation into a spectrum of experiences: consent, feeling violated, fearing you violated someone, assault. Approaching consent in this way allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity encompassed within consent in an increasingly complicated and interconnected world. Consent will continue to be a dynamic experience. It requires a tailored approach. More than rehearsing a generalized and prescribed no, it is important to connect with how consent embodies each person and each opportunity to give consent. When you can have full emotional and physiological awareness of how consent inhabits your body, you gain access to your resolve and the voice that ultimately utters “no.” Owning your “no” strengthens self-worth, boundaries, autonomy, and personal preference. It reduces the chance of encountering violating experiences and helps navigate when such an experience cannot be avoided.

Outcomes:
Participants will identify at least three ways consent can be violated through the use of technology.

Participants will be able to define each element within the spectrum of consent.

Participants will be about to demonstrate how to tailor individual consent with the use of body scanning
6:30 - 9:30 pm
Join us in the Beaubian Room, a classic "Detroit Industrial" aesthetic space on the 8th floor, for a strolling dinner (included in your Full Conference Registration)  where you can mingle with speakers, nosh, win door prizes, and connect across disciplines. Make new friends, build your professional network, and enjoy the opportunity to socialize! Dinner will be included!

​Hackers, wear your favorite hoodies and clinicians- don't forget to rock your cardigans!
9:00 - 10:00 am

A Digital Health Framework to Put into Practice

Presenter: Dr. Markie Twist

Many clinicians, scholars, clients, and lay people are worried about how one’s engagement with technology is healthy or problematic. In this presentation, Dr. Markie, who is one of the scholars who coined the terms digital health (digihealth) and out-of-control digital behaviors (out-of-control digibehaviors; OCDB), provides a framework for digihealth and related guidelines. In addition, Dr. Markie reviews a definition of OCDB and a framework for addressing OCDB, as well as a case study to explore through the lens of digihealth.Title: A Digital Health Framework to Put into Practice
 
Outcomes:
Participants will be able to introduce and discuss the definition of digital health (digihealth) and the related principles.

Participants will be able to introduce and discuss the concept of out-of-control-digibehaviors.

Participants will be able to apply the digihealth principles in practice through case study exploration.

AI, Intimacy, and Ethics: A Philosophical Discussion: Ley David Elliette

Presenter: Ley David Elliette

With the advent of (and increased levels of popular attention focused on) generative AI such as Chat GPT and Replika, many persons are being exposed to more and more instances of AI convincingly approximating human behavior. Along with this, discussions centered on topics such as Replika’s “romantic partner” mode continue to bring the intersections of AI and sexuality into light, making clear the importance of nuanced and reflective discussion of matters ranging from conceptions of personhood to definitions of “sex” to the ethics of imaginative engagement and beyond.

In this presentation, I circumscribe and address two considerations that arise upon considering the intersections of AI and sexuality. First: under what conditions would (or could) an AI qualify as a genuine sex partner, rather than a mere sex toy? And second: what are the relevant ethical considerations of treating an AI as a genuine sex partner? In addressing these two questions, I’ll argue further that the answer to the second is, strictly speaking, independent of how we answer the first, insofar as ethical considerations of the sort arise even if it is established that no AI could ever qualify as a genuine sex partner. (This is simply due to the rather mundane fact that people can act in ethically evaluable ways even when operating under false beliefs.)

As we navigate potential answers to the above questions, we will also address: how should we best understand consent (and consent violations) in the context of someone having (or believing that they are having) partnered sex with generative AI? In exploring this question, we’ll draw on literature pertaining to the ethics of engagement with videogames and other instances of what are sometimes referred to as “self-involving interactive fictions.” The resulting discussion will illuminate interesting nuances that reveal themselves upon taking seriously questions that combine critical reflection on imaginative engagement with reflective application of concepts of consent.

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to formulate and motivate considerations of AI and sexual personhood.

Participants will review extant literature on the ethics of imaginative engagement and be able to analyze and summarize the same.

Participants will be able explain and summarize the understandings of consent in perceived cases of AI-involving partnered sex.
10:00 - 11:00 am

A Virtual Reality: Securely Navigating Nonmonogamy in a Digital Society

Presenters: Amanda Jepson and Brian Stearns

Online options for emotional, romantic, sexual, and communal connections are ever-increasing and ubiquitous: Instagram. AdultFriendFinder. Feeld. OnlyFans. Facebook. Telegram. MeetUp. Hinge. Skype. Kasadie. Signal. Zoom. Tinder. Patreon. WhatsApp. Submit. OKCupid. Snapchat. iMessage. FetLife. Grindr. SMS. At the same time, there are rising concerns about nonconsensual data collection and personal safety amidst rampant cybercrime, technology-assisted sexual violence, and the ever present surveillance economy. This potentially treacherous digital terrain, paired with apathy or a lack of knowledge of their risks, often leaves people without the information they need to make fully-informed and safe choices.

Being secure means to be free from exposure to danger or harm; safe, to the best of our individual and collective abilities. Navigating consensual nonmonogamy (CNM) in today's digital world requires intentional choices focused on security, both in the use of technology and in building connections with others. Intentionality is an important aim in navigating the digital world and in making conscious and informed decisions in how we connect to others. This talk will present ideas on how to increase the healthy ways to meet our needs in emotional, physical, and sexually intimate relationships while also addressing the need to improve our online safety practices. Join a certified sex therapist and a cybersecurity professional as we discuss ways to build relationships, find like-minded people, and keep a focus on safety and security in digital spaces, with information pulled from our professional and personal experiences.

​Outcomes: 
Participants will be able to identify benefits of and ways to utilize technology to connect to others involved in CNM.
Participants will be able to name potential risks and threats due to technology use.

Participants will be able to describe the importance of and ways of increasing security while using technology.

Building a Consent-Based Internet: Leveraging Blockchain for Deepfake Protection

Presenter: Maya Brooks
​
In recent years, the rise of deepfake technology has posed significant challenges to the integrity and authenticity of digital media. Deepfakes, realistic synthetic media created using artificial intelligence techniques, can manipulate visual and audio content to deceive viewers and spread misinformation. As deepfakes become more sophisticated and accessible, it is crucial to develop effective countermeasures to combat their potential negative consequences. This presentation explores the utilization of blockchain technology as a powerful tool to prevent the proliferation of deepfakes, content abuse, misuse, and harm.

The presentation begins by providing a comprehensive overview of deepfake technology, highlighting its potential implications across various domains such as politics, journalism, and entertainment. It emphasizes the urgent need for reliable methods to detect, trace, and authenticate digital content to mitigate the risks associated with deepfakes.

Next, the focus shifts to blockchain technology and its unique characteristics that make it a promising solution for deepfake prevention. The decentralized and immutable nature of blockchain offers inherent advantages for establishing trust and ensuring the integrity of digital assets. The presentation delves into specific techniques and methodologies that utilize blockchain to combat deepfakes effectively. This includes exploring the use of blockchain for content certification and timestamping, enabling the verification and authentication of digital media throughout its lifecycle. Additionally, the integration of decentralized consensus algorithms and smart contracts can enhance the traceability and accountability of content creators, reducing the potential for malicious deepfake manipulation.Furthermore, the presentation examines the challenges and limitations associated with implementing blockchain technology for deepfake prevention. It addresses scalability concerns, privacy considerations, and the balance between decentralization and usability. By understanding these obstacles, we can identify potential solutions and research directions to overcome them.

Overall, this presentation aims to shed light on the potential of blockchain technology as a robust solution for preventing the spread and impact of deepfakes. By leveraging the inherent security and transparency of blockchain, we can build a more trustworthy digital environment, safeguarding the authenticity of media content and protecting individuals and society from the harmful consequences of deepfakes.
 
Outcomes
Participants will be able to explain how blockchain can be used to support copyright law in favor of content creators
 
Participants will be able to summarize how blockchain can be used to prove originality, fixation, creation for immutable proof of ownership
 
Participants will be able to describe at least three ways to balance privacy & decentralization when securing sensitive content
11:00 - 12:00 pm: KEYNOTE PLENARY

Where Are We Going And Why Are We In This Handbasket?
Eva Galperin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

This keynote talk will cover recent developments on some of the most important fronts in the fight to protect digital civil liberties: abortion access and care, trans rights, the protection of domestic abuse survivors, and the speech rights and safety of sex workers. It will discuss recent court rulings, both big wins and disappointing losses, legislation, efforts at regulation, the role of social media and tech companies, and the latest in digital privacy and security advice. Finally, this talk will look to the future and address the ways in which we can meet upcoming threats using all of the tools we have at our disposal, ranging from lawsuits to activism to counter-surveillance techniques.
12:00 - 1:00 pm: INTERACTIVE LUNCH

Lunch + Learn: A Tribute to The Match Game

Presenter: Ben Miller

Those of us too young to remember the classic game show The Match Game are still probably familiar with RuPaul's parody version, The Snatch Game. Join us in the Main Ballroom for lunch (included in your conference registration) and cheer on our contestants as they try to guess how our panel of speakers will answer our sass-and-snark filled fill in the blank questions! You'll spend your lunch hour laughing AND learning in a casual setting that will challenge your brain while nourishing your body. 

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to assess information received from multiple sources and determine which facts support a given scenario or example. 

 Participants will build rapport through interactive learning with the conference presenters. 

Participants will be able to differentiate between cross-disciplinary responses to common problems and describe the differences in a technology based solutions as compared to psychological solutions. 
1:00 - 2:00 pm

10,000 Years of Cybersex

Presenter: Stefani Goerlich

This historical retrospective will explore the evolution of erotic imagery from 7200 BCE until today. We will discuss the role that erotica has played in the development of technology as well as the way that technology has been used to foster connection, romance, and sexuality. In addition to a timeline-style discussion of erotica, we will discuss the sociological and psychological perspectives of cybersex and teledildonics. This session contains adult content- including photographs and video- and is not appropriate for attendees under 18.

Outcomes:
Participants will be able to describe the erotification of technology and its impact on innovation.

Participants will be able to analyze technologies through the lenses of pleasure equity and intimate justice.

Participants will be able to identify and explain three ways in which mainstream technologies have been used to foster or support intimate and relational connections between users. 

Sex-Positive victims rights: ethical considerations for practitioners and technologists

Presenter: Norma Buster

In this talk, victims rights advocate Norma Buster will discuss her first-hand experience going from being a survivor of stalking and image-based sexual abuse, to the Director Client Relations at C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, a victims rights law firm in Brooklyn. She will explain how she found reclamation and healing through activism, podcasting, and online sex work as an OnlyFans creator, and will expand on the complexities of navigating tech and sexuality as a survivor and advocate. 
 
Norma will bring you into her world, examining a few cases C.A. Goldberg has brought challenging big tech companies and their lack of accountability to date for extreme harms caused to individual. This discussion will be through the lens of direct services to victim and the transformative impact litigation can have on individuals ready to take on Goliaths. (It is not a discussion about legal advice.)  Norma will list some clear problems with the way big tech companies operate and issues they need to tackle for user safety. We must demand that tech companies step up to the plate. 
 
Victims rights must be sex-positive, period. We will examine what this means in practice, from approaching every individual’s story with a nonjudgmental, trauma-informed approach, to understanding the spectrum of the sex trade and why this is important for helping victims. Norma shares lessons she’s learned over the years listening to, processing, and translating the stories of thousands of victims in her career. Finally, we’ll discuss the aftermath of victimhood – the impacts of tech-facilitated abuse and factors into a survivor’s healing path, and what survivors need.
​
Outcomes:
Participants will be able to define tech-facilitated abuse and describe the harms that defective tech can cause.
 
Participants will be able to identify at least two current practices of Big Tech that facilitate the proliferation of abuse.
 
Participants will be able to describe the importance of a sex-positive and trauma-informed approach to working with victims/survivors.
2:00 - 3:00 pm

Kinks in the System: Highlighting the Impact of Educational Gaps When Working With Erotically Marginalized Communities

Presenter: Elyssa Helfer

Mental health practitioners throughout the U.S. are required to complete a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology or a related field in order to be eligible for licensure. Limited research has been conducted on the prevalence of human sexuality education within Master's level programs; however, the content of courses that do exist tend to focus almost exclusively on disease and infection as well as sexual problems (sexual disorders, sexual violence), rather than on diverse sexual expression and erotically marginalized communities. Various studies have revealed that up to 68% of the population either have participated in or fantasized about kink and that up to 20% of the population has engaged at some point in non-monogamy; thus, it is critical that mental health practitioners are prepared to serve these and other erotically marginalized populations. The question is, are we truly prepared to do so?  By examining original and existing research, this session will address why it is so vital to fill these gaps in knowledge, how to attain said knowledge, and the next steps for pushing toward changing our educational systems.
 
Outcomes:
Participants will be able to describe the impact that educational gaps have on quality of mental health care for erotically marginalized communities/community members.

Participants will be able to identify at least three proactive steps clinicians can take to provide inclusive and affirming care for erotically marginalized communities/community members.  
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Participants will be able to ​analyze their own educational deficits and identify opportunities for strategic continuing education.

The Birds, Bees, and Bytes: An Easy Introduction to Sextech Risks and Protections

Presenter: J. Wolfgang Goerlich

It started before the modern web browser, before smart phones, before search engines and social media. It was 1993. An artist and a technologist connected people in Paris to Cologne in the first cybersex rig. Sextech quickly accelerated from there as our technology evolved. Today it encompasses applications, devices, and online platforms designed to enhance sexual experiences and revolutionize the way individuals explore their sexuality. And yet. The fundamental flaws in all these technologies expose sextech to a number of vulnerabilities. Moreover, the very personal nature of how individuals interact with these devices brings its own concerns with privacy, consent, and safety. The interconnected nature of sextech and the internet demands a multi-disciplinary approach to our security. Beginning with the historical perspective of the 1993 experiment and surveying the last thirty years, this session provides an accessible introduction to technical risks when evaluating sextech. The audience will be equipped to create their personal risk framework to protect their pursuits of pleasure.

Outcomes:
Inspire and empower individuals engaged in the development and usage of sextech to prioritize security considerations and develop personal risk frameworks.

Make cybersecurity concepts accessible and provide high-level guidance for individuals seeking to adopt responsible practices which prioritize safety and privacy.

​Foster discussion and collaboration among individuals, researchers, industry professionals, and entrepreneurs leading to cybersecurity requirements for product development
3:00 - 4:00 pm

Securing sexuality: The podcast - live

Live with Audience Participation. Bring your comments and questions.

Do you know how to protect your pursuit of pleasure? Technology upended how we connect romantically and sexually. But broken apps, hacked toys, confusing privacy settings, and breaches are anything but sexy.

This podcast is here to help with tips to safer sex in a digital age. Offering insights intriguing and often taboo subjects are our hosts, Stefani Goerlich and Wolf Goerlich.

Doomsday Prepping Your Health Apps

Presenter: Helen Patton

Our entire lives are now digital, including our healthcare lives.  As we use wearables and online applications to record our biometrics, health activities, and healthcare decisions, the risk of that data being used without our consent and without our best interests gets higher and higher. 

In this session, you will learn the current state of health apps and how technology companies are sharing information with governments.  You will learn what to consider so that you may plan for and manage health outcomes in a way that ensures your decisions are private and secure.

Outcomes:

Participants will be able to describe how health tracking applications collect, store and share data and how these technologies can support, or become a barrier to, accessing healthcare.

Participants will be able to explain and critique the current state of data sharing between health technology companies and governments and how this sharing impacts clients and providers.

Participants will be able to identify at least three strategies providers and their clients can implement to protect healthcare privacy
4:00 - 5:00 pm: CLOSING PLENARY

RACK for Tech: Internet of Dongs - Interactive Q&A with the Audience

Presenter: Nicole Schwartz & Renderman

The founder of and one of the researchers for the Internet of Dongs (IoD) are going to have an interactive session answering audience questions. This is your chance to ask questions about the IoD project, how exactly they hack adult devices, how IoD devices work, and safety questions around their manufacture. Profession and personal use of the devices. You can even ask what it is like to travel with the demo devices or what their parents think of this project!
 
Outcomes:

Participants will be able to evaluate the risks and benefits of IOT devices in intimate relationships.

Participants will be able to explain the ways in which personal information is gathered, stored, and shared by people using sex toys.

Participants will describe the process of negotiating the use of technology by partners in a relationship.
6:30 to 9:30 pm: SPEAKER AND VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION
After the talks have ended and the rooms are cleared, our speakers and volunteers are invited to attend a private dinner celebrating the conclusion of a successful event and each other. This event is offered at no cost to those who have given their time, talent, and expertise to support the mission of Securing Sexuality. It is not open to general conference attendees. 
DETROIT FIELD TRIP
After the conference ends, consider extending your stay one more night so that you can join the Securing Sexuality Home Team on a tour of the Motor City. Detroit is a vibrant metropolis with a rich and fascinating history- and with this optional add-on event, you can get a guided tour of some of the best spots in "The D" from those who know her and love her best. Some of the sights we'll see include...

  • Historic Eastern Market
  • The Spirit of Detroit and Campus Martius
  • Belle Isle, our island park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead nestled in the middle of the Detroit River
  • Noir Leather, Detroit's iconic Leather/Punk/Kink shop nestled just outside the city limits
  • A tour of Detroit's newest ropes space, Oblige. 
  • A driving tour of some of the city's best street art from artists such as  Kozek, Sydney G. James, and Ron English- can you spot the piece that got Shepard Fairey in trouble with the city?
  • The Belt (if you know, you know)

And more!

This event is NOT included in your conference ticket and must be purchased as a separate add-on below

Proudly Sponsored by The Bound Together Foundation

An IRS approved 501(c)3  nonprofit organization
Michigan Charitable Solicitation Registration# 64801

Phone | 313-626-0160

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