A theme park in Perth, Australia, has been accused of "fat-shaming" guests after introducing weighing scales for its rides.
Adventure World's recent changes have been slammed as "humiliating" and "degrading," with some patrons calling for a boycott of the entire park.
The "self-serve" weighing stations were a point of particular ire, as they flashed red or green at the end of the queue, depending on whether the rider fell between the max weight limits.
Customers were told that they could not weigh over 198lbs (90kg) to ride the rapids, while they could not be over 165lbs (75kg) to go on the roller coaster, Abyss.
A woman named Jess, who was there with her two daughters, last Saturday, told The West Australian how her 13-year-old had a "humiliating and embarrassing" experience.
"My eldest daughter took my youngest daughter, who has special needs up the slides. She noticed the weight machine but just lined up with her sister and her friends," she said.
"Once at the top she was stopped and asked to stand on a weight machine. The lights flickered green and then red and then green again. The operator then walked over to an electrical box and looked inside it, and then came back to her and said sorry, you weigh this amount and you can’t go down,” she continued, adding that her daughter had to walk down in a "walk of shame".
"I was angry and disappointed in Adventure World. We’ve enjoyed these rides for years and now all of a sudden we weren’t able to."
The CEO of Adventure World, Andrew Sharry, has since issued an apology on Facebook, and has conceded that their waterslide safety mechanisms "would be received as traumatic and upsetting for some of our guests and members."
''Apology, In our efforts to introduce important systems to better manage safety on some of our waterslides, we have handled the communication of these new waterslide systems poorly and we have upset our Guests and Members.
"This is the last thing we wanted to do."
"On Monday, I connected with an expert who specialises in body image and eating disorders, and I can now see how these waterslide safety systems would be received as traumatic and upsetting for some of our Guests and Members.
"I am genuinely sorry that we have caused this distress to our Guests and Members - Our purpose is to create happiness and magical memories. We have not achieved that on this occasion and I acknowledge that we can do better.
"I have spoken with the family involved and have personally apologised for the hurt that we have caused.''
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