Research Finds That Dating App Loopholes Put Single Parents at Risk

A new report from the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute has revealed that dating apps may be creating opportunities for child abusers to access and exploit children – particularly through relationships with single parents. The study, which surveyed 5,000 men across the UK, US, and Australia, found that individuals who have committed sexual offences against minors are significantly more likely to use dating platforms than non-offenders.

Single mothers were identified as especially vulnerable. In previous studies, up to 12% of dating app users said they had been asked to enable abuse, sometimes involving their own children. The report also found that those who offend often appear trustworthy – many work with children, have children at home, and tend to be well-educated.

Part of this risk appears to come from loopholes in the apps themselves, whether that’s ways to bypass proper verification or the apps simply not having any proper child protection measures. In some cases, this may be because the apps themselves were never designed to account for single parents, meaning that safety or report features aren’t able to give the right kind of protection or assistance.

Professor Michael Salter, a co-author of the report called for stronger identity verification processes, similar to those used in sectors like finance and gambling. He also urged the adoption of AI tools capable of flagging harmful language and conversations – which would be more effective at picking up the context of a conversation, something that would matter a lot given that most abusers wouldn’t use overtly threatening or obvious language.

Professor Deborah Fry, Childlight’s global data director, described the issue as “a global public health emergency,” stressing that prevention – not just enforcement- must be central to tackling the systems that enable abuse. The responsibility may on be dating apps to fix these loopholes and limited safety features, especially given that online dating has become much more prominent than in-person dates in recent years.