Red Flag Campaign
- The Editor
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Millions of women and children will be heading to swimming pools and leisure centres over the summer blissfully unaware of the dangers they face from sexual predators seeking victims in mixed-sex changing rooms.
The trend towards so-called ‘family-friendly’ mixed changing rooms has put women and children (mainly girls) at serious risk of sexual assault and voyeurism.
We know mixed-sex changing facilities are high-risk. In a 2018 FOI investigation there were 134 complaints of sexual misconduct in sports centres and swimming pools in the UK, 120 (nearly 90%) occurred in mixed facilities.
In January 2025 Swim England held an emergency safeguarding meeting. Cases of voyeurism and using mobile phones to photograph women and girls changing at swim competitions had DOUBLED.
The WRN Leisure Centre Report 2024 published in 2024 found that one-third of council swimming pools have only mixed-sex changing areas for swimmers, providing easy hunting grounds for predatory males seeking access to women and children.
The Sports Councils (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) recommend mixed-sex changing villages as a ‘cost-effective’ solution for swim changing without any thought to SAFEGUARDING.
We call on sports and leisure providers to make SAFEGUARDING the No.1 priority when building and refurbishing leisure facilities: The safest changing room is a single-sex changing room.
The Red Flag Campaign
The WRN Summer Sport Campaign 2025 focuses on the risks to millions of women and children from using public swimming pools and leisure facilities.
A street action and social media campaign. The red flag is the symbol for the campaign as it signifies a serious SAFEGUARDING risk and a failure to PROTECT women and children from harm.
What you can do
Contact your local council if you are concerned about using mixed-sex changing rooms.
If a leisure facility in your town is being built or refurbished make your views known – consultations seldom ask for the public’s views on changing facilities but every consultation should.
If you’re not happy speak to your local councillor or MP – they are there to serve you.
Write to us and tell us what’s happening in your areas. Contact sports@womensrights.network
The safest changing room is a single-sex changing room.
