Attacks linked to dating apps: RMIT expert comments on what more can be done

Recent reports point to dating apps being used to lure victims to a meet up where they are then attacked, robbed or subjected to homophobic slurs. This comes after last month, when popular apps like Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Grindr, RSVP and eHarmony adopted a voluntary industry code to improve safety.

Dr Dana Mckay, Senior Lecturer in Innovative Interactive Technologies, School of Computing Technologies

Topics: dating apps, homophobic violence, gendered violence, safer technology, data

"Like many other online services, dating apps collect a large amount of information about their users.

"These companies have not yet taken steps to use this data to support their users to evaluate risk, safety and reputation of potential partners.

"Some potential steps include identity verification (even if the real identity isn't shared with potential partners) and police checks.

"Others incorporate information collected by the services themselves, such as unsolicited sharing of intimate images potentially signalling antisocial behaviour.

"Meeting anonymous people for dates is not new - it has happened in bars and other public places for centuries. Dating apps are merely the tool by which we achieve these meetings.

"Bars and public places offered the security of witnesses to a meeting, and potential intervention.

"Dating apps offer no such security, even with the additional data they collect.

"There is an opportunity for these apps to make dating safer, not more dangerous, which technology companies should take up."

Dana McKay is Associate Dean, Interaction, Technology and Information in the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University. Dana's research focuses on ensuring advances in digital information technologies make the world a fairer and more equitable place. As a part of this research, Dana has been studying the role of technology mediated information in promoting and combatting gendered violence.

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