Tinder Creates Portal For Police to Automatically View Reports of Sexual Assault

Match Group has announced it is working with the New South Wales (NSW) police force in Australia to streamline the process of reporting sexual predators.

A dedicated portal has been created that will contain all sexual assault reports made by Tinder users. NSW Police will then be able to access this database and begin investigating the allegations without needing to converse with the online dating company.

It’s part of Match Group’s new commitment to immediately referring serious reports to the relevant authorities.

Detective Superintendent Stacey Maloney told The Daily Telegraph in Australia: “They have been very good at recognising that their brand can be damaged if they don’t support victims if there has been an incident that has stemmed from meeting on one of their apps.

“If they hold information that is suggestive an offence has been committed, they have a responsibility in my view to pass that on.”

It was also suggested that new artificial intelligence technology could be used to automatically monitor messages and bios for indications of assault. However, the system would not be completely effective as it could pick up on explicit threats, but might struggle to recognise more subliminal indicators.

In October last year, an investigation from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation found that Tinder was not providing adequate support to the members who reported incidents of sexual assault.

Tinder and Match Group have since worked on a number of safety updates to better protect its community. 

This includes a partnership with Garbo to give users the opportunity to run background checks on their matches. The premium feature will let them see “public records and reports of violence or abuse, including arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment, and other violent crimes”.

Read more here.