Research into Tinder has found that many reports into sexual offences by users are often found to be unanswered. The investigation into the platform is alleging that “Tinder is enabling sexual predators to thrive on its app”.
A call out from the Australian radio show Triple J Hack found that the majority of the 400 respondents said they had experienced sexual assault or harassment while using dating apps.
48 individuals said they had reported a sexual offence to Tinder, with only 11 receiving a response. Furthermore, most of these responses were a generic message with little information about actions taken.
A study from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine has found most sexual assaults from dating app matches happened during the first face-to-face meeting, and the majority of those were at the alleged offender’s house.
It’s believed that victims have a heightened sense of trust after communicating with someone online.
Emily was sexually assaulted by a man she met on Tinder and later reported her attacker to platform.
She told Triple J Hack: “I remember it took me a long time even trying to find how to report someone.
“I wrote down his occupation and said, ‘This man is dangerous. This man is a threat and will hurt people if given the chance.’ I just got an automated response, just a refresh of the page saying, ‘Thanks for submitting.’ I never heard anything else.
“It felt like a waste of time. It just felt like, why bother? Why did I bother? Nothing is going to happen from this.”
The main issue was that the offender blocked Emily after the incident which automatically deleted their entire conversation history from Tinder’s system. This makes it almost impossible for moderators to track the person down and report them to the authorities.
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