Child abuse charity accuses Mayor Sadiq Khan of failing to protect children by allowing London’s naked bike ride to take place every year

A sex abuse charity has accused the mayor of London of failing to protect children from naked cyclists in the capital.

Sir Sadiq Khan ‘could have done a lot more than he did’ to protect children from exposure to nudity during his naked bike ride in London, a campaigner has said.

The annual event sees adults cycling naked through the capital in a protest against car culture and oil addiction; This often leads to their arrest.

But critics of the trip said the lack of participant registration, lack of regulation of the itinerary and protections to prevent children from being exposed to adult nudity were causes for concern.

‘There’s a real gray area in the UK,’ said Emma Jane Taylor, founder of sexual abuse charity Project 90-10.

‘The next day [after the bike ride]If you go and do this you will be arrested. ‘How come the green light was given today?’

The World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) in London has been running since 2004 and will return on June 14 after 1,200 cyclists took part last year.

Organizers said the ride was not meant to cause alarm or distress but to celebrate body positivity.

Under the Sexual Offenses Act 2003, deliberately exposing one’s genitals must be done in a way that causes alarm or distress, which becomes indecent exposure.

The ride is intended to promote body positivity, but participants could be arrested if they repeat such behavior outside the event

The penalty for this crime can be up to two years in prison and being placed on the sex offender registry.

Now Ms Taylor has launched a petition calling on the Government to review the legal and protective position of the incident and encourage Sir Sadiq to intervene.

He said: ‘The mayor can do a lot more than he has done, but he’s not doing enough when it comes to protecting children and families and having sensible conversations.’

Ms Taylor’s petition stated that no ID or DBS checks were used for the race and that there was ‘no way of distinguishing genuine participants from opportunists’.

The petition calls on the Government to review the ‘legal and protective implications of allowing all public nudity at an unregulated, open-access event’.

Ms Taylor said her push was not against ‘protest or freedom of expression’, but rather a ‘call for consistent law, child protection and basic standards of protection that apply equally to all public events’.

Last year, a WNBR participant was punched off his bike by a garbage collector who thought he was a ‘pervert’.

Robert Brown, 59, was attacked by a rider while cycling naked in Colchester, Essex, for a charity cycling event in August.

WNBR said it was aware of Ms Taylor’s petition, adding: ‘We understand that she is a social media influencer who promotes body fitness and good looks.

The founder of a child sex abuse charity says London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan should do more to protect children from being exposed to adult nudity at the event

‘This is the type of harmful impact we are campaigning against as part of WNBR’s body positivity theme.’

A spokesperson for the event said: ‘Our body positivity/body acceptance theme is all about having a sensible attitude towards the human body, rather than suffering from body image anxiety and peer pressure due to abnormal sexual activity. We all have bodies, we are all different and that’s okay.

‘The World Naked Bike Ride is a peaceful, legal protest that aims to convey their message by attracting public attention. We want other road users and spectators to be pleasantly surprised and to notice it. We don’t behave badly! There is no ‘grey area’ in terms of the law.’

He added: ‘No part of our campaign is directed at children. We ask that all children on the trip be appropriately dressed and supervised by a parent or responsible adult. ‘Many naturist families would be upset if we told them their children were not welcome.’

A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: ‘This is an operational policing decision for the Met.’