Cardiff Uni Banter, an anonymous confessional ‘banter’ Instagram page, has been the centre of a controversy over the last week after the posting of an anonymous confession which related a scenario involving rape.
The post posted on Wednesday, 30th September, contained this anonymous confession: “My mate was seeing this girl who had frequent seizures. Anyway, he recently confessed to us she had a seizure mid shag and he said he’d never been more turned on and immediately finished.”
The post has caused an uproar in the student community online, with calls from hundreds of students for the account to take responsibility for its actions in posting content that depicts sexual violence and rape admissions.
The Instagram account that started in January 2025 says in its bio that it posts “the best Confessions, Memes & Banter in Cardiff”. However, that claim has come into question since the recent posts. Most of the posts depict confessions that are of a sexual nature, some of which describe degrading interactions between students.
Time to Act is a student-led campaign group whose mission is to tackle sexual misconduct within Cardiff University and beyond. The group initially spearheaded the online call for a "Cardiffini boycott”, asking students to unfollow the banter page. Additionally, they are asking Cardiff Uni Banter to address “their continued perpetuation of rape culture” through their posts, and to speak out on the ongoing situation.
The page has lost over 2,100 followers since its post on Wednesday, 30th. The comment sections of recent posts are filled with requests for the account to address the situation, but these requests do not seem to have received a response.
On Sunday, 4th October, Time To Act posted a story on Instagram saying that they were “pleased to see that Cardiff Uni Banter confession submissions were halted” earlier in the day. Since then, Cardiff Uni Banter has stopped posting and has paused their confession forms, with a note on its Google Form saying, “Submissions are paused for a little while. Please try again later.”
As of October 5th, a new Cardiff Uni Bants page has been made under the username ‘cardiffunibants’, and is reportedly completely separate from the cardiffunibanter account, with the account already posting a confession which reads, “Please can you not post sexual violence like the last page, we want a page which is funny not whatever that was”, which the account captioned “none of that”. The account has gained just under 1000 followers in its first 24 hours of being online.
When approached by Gair Rhydd for comment, the Cardiff Uni Bants account responded with “No, I’m not associated with cardiffunibanter, I don’t condone what they allowed to be posted. However, students deserve a moderated space where everyone can have a laugh and cardiffunibants is just that.”
When asked for a comment, Time To Act told Gair Rhydd, “We are deeply concerned with some of the recent posts on the Cardiff Uni Banter account regarding confessions of rape and cyber-flashing. Sexual violence is not ‘banter’. Survivors deserve privacy and support, not having their trauma used for entertainment.” They also pledge to continue to speak up until “full accountability has been taken, and commitments are made to never post a confession of the sort again.”
The Cardiff Uni Banter account was contacted for a comment on why they chose to post this content and whether they plan on issuing an apology, to which Gair Rhydd received no response.
The Cardiff Uni Banter Instagram account is not associated with Cardiff University and is run by an anonymous member of the public.
If you have been affected by any of the issues discussed in this article, please contact Rape Crisis England & Wales for free and confidential advice on 0808 500 2222, or use Cardiff University’s Report and Support system to report sexual violence on campus.
Gair Rhydd have taken Time to Act’s pledge to be a ‘Committed Committee’, and we remain dedicated to tackling issues of sexual violence on campus through our coverage.