Video on hugging consent taken down after criticism

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has taken down three online video advertisements related to its 'We Consent' campaign, following criticism of one advert in particular.

It features grandparents arriving at a front door and enthusiastically hugging a young boy, but when they approach a teenage girl standing behind him, she looks unenthusiastic about the upcoming greeting.

The advert stops at that point with the words, "Not everyone wants a hug".

The ad generated much criticism online and also received international coverage in the New York Post and and The Hungarian Conservative.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has removed it along with two others.

In a statement, DRCC said: "We-Consent is a long-term campaign as part of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's prevention work to increase the awareness and practice of consent in Ireland.

"We created three videos premised on the idea that boundaries should be respected from an early age and to respect others' boundaries too. We are going to remove the videos from our social media channels while we reflect on whether they are having the positive effect we want them to have."

The We-Consent project is supported by the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality.

Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan said: "The video produced by the DRCC involving grandparents does not represent the views of the Government.

"It was both inappropriate and demeaning to grandparents and has been removed by DRCC following my officials engagement with them.

"It goes without saying that having loving grandparents in a child’s life is an incredibly positive thing to be cherished and not something to be campaigned against. While it is vital to ensure that people understand the concept of consent when it comes to sexual relationships, this video did not advance that aim and in many ways was counterproductive."

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre said it will not be commenting further until a review is carried out.

Government 'does not support' advert - Carroll MacNeill

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has told the Dáil that the Government "does not support" the advert.

She called the advert "both inappropriate and demeaning to grandparents".

Ms Carroll MacNeill said that, while the DRCC is one of many charities with which the Government has a service delivery arrangement, the campaign was "funded without any reference to Government".

Taking Leaders' Questions, Ms Carroll MacNeill said that "it has been removed by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre following the Minister for Justice's engagement with officials".

She said that it is "important that we clearly distinguish this video, which was an error and doesn't represent the views of Government" from the "different body of work entirely" of tackling gender-based violence.

"Grandparents are an incredibly important part of family life, an incredibly important part of every child's life, and it is that was both inappropriate and demeaning to grandparents."

She was responding to Aontú TD Paul Lawless, who had claimed that the advert demonised grandparents, and said that it is a "Government-funded campaign".

Mr Lawless asked how much it cost and said that it conflated two separate issues, "sexual violence on the one hand, affection exchanged by a grandmother to a grandchild on the other".

"Why is the State asking grannies to second-guess themselves when it comes to hugging their grandchildren?" he asked.