A safety control device for releasing an operation of a machine, in particular a robot, includes an input device for detecting a manual contact, in particular a finger contact. The safety control device has a retaining device for securing the input device to a finger, in particular a fingertip, of an operator, in particular in a frictional manner, and/or a signaling means for outputting a signal, in particular an optical, acoustic, tactile, thermal, and/or electric signal, if a contact force detected by the input device is smaller than a specified upper minimum value and/or for outputting a signal, in particular the same signal or a different signal, in particular an optical, acoustic, tactile, thermal, and/or electric signal, if a contact force detected by the input device is greater than a specified lower maximum value.