99% of Women Report Abuse on Dating Platforms, Australian Study Finds

Almost every woman surveyed in a new Australian study had experienced some form of tech-based abuse on dating platforms. 99% of 1,008 heterosexual women surveyed said they had experienced at least one abusive behaviour in the previous three months. On average, women experienced these behaviours on a weekly basis.

The research comes from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and was funded by the Minderoo Foundation. Its new report, Understanding Tech-Based Abuse of Women on Dating Platforms, looks beyond obvious abuse such as threats, scams and unsolicited sexual images. It includes behaviours such as love bombing, negging, gaslighting, persistent contact and monitoring.

Download the report here.

Psychological and emotional abuse topped the list. Women often dealt with this type of behaviour by unmatching or avoiding the person rather than reporting it. More obvious incidents were reported more frequently, including catfishing (34%), unwanted explicit images (32%), threats (22%) and financial scams (22%).

Reporting did not always leave women feeling safer. Among those who reported harmful behaviour, 19% felt their complaint was barely or not at all taken seriously. A quarter said the platform’s response did little or nothing to improve how safe they felt. 23% actually felt less confident after the platform’s response.

The report makes one thing clear. The burden of staying safe still falls too heavily on women. BIT recommends that platforms detect harmful behaviour earlier, make reporting easier and stop offenders from simply creating new accounts. Safety should be built into dating apps from the start, rather than leaving women to deal with the consequences.