Are Dating Apps To Blame For A Rise In STIs Across England?
A British sexual health group has associated popular dating apps with the increasing spread of sexually transmitted infections across England.
Leading sexual health doctor with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), Dr Peter Greenhouse told BBC Newsbeat that modern dating apps are potentially dangerous to the sexual health of its users.
He said: “You are able to turn over partners more quickly with a dating app and the quicker you change partners the more likely you are to get infections.
“What really worries me is that we are just at a tipping point for HIV.”
He later took to Twitter to confirm that this “tipping point” will not take place any time soon, but will depend on “porn-driven hetero rectal sex and increased partner change rate”.
HIV ‘tipping point’ some years away, but depends on porn-driven hetero rectal sex + increased partner change rate R0 https://t.co/6h6qejsXS3
– Peter Greenhouse (@GreenhousePeter) November 2, 2015
Following his comments, a number of online dating representatives have defended dating apps from the claims recently made against them.
George Kidd, the chief executive of the Online Dating Association disagreed with the links between dating apps and a rise in sexually transmitted infections.
He told Newsbeat: “Our members are dating sites, not sex-encounter businesses, but we should be alert to any particular situations in which health advice is appropriate.”
In 2014, the number of people being diagnosed with syphilis in England went up by a third, whilst the rate of gonorrhea diagnosis increased by 19 percent.
Several dating apps executives have also shared their thoughts on Dr Greenhouse’s comments, including Happn’s head of trends Marie Cosnard.
Cosnard defended dating apps from the idea that they are contributing to a soar in sexual infection across the nations, saying that liberalised attitudes to relationships, wider social trends and changing behaviours are also causing the problem to spread further.
She added: “People need to be more educated in terms of sexual health and to take their responsibilities, no matter how and where they’ve met their partner.”
Watch Newsbeat’s ‘Addicted to Dating Apps’ report below:
