The US House Oversight and Reform subcommittee has announced that it will be looking at some of the most popular dating apps for allegedly allowing convicted sex offenders and minors onto their platforms.
The investigative board has already contacted Match Group officials and requested information relating to a report from the end of last year.
ProPublica, BuzzFeed News and Columbia Journalism Investigations collaborated to see whether or not the online dating umbrella properly screened its users. They found that 10% of dating app sexual assault cases involved users that had already been accused of similar crimes.
Bumble, Grindr and The Meet Group are all also going to be looked into by the US government.
Chairman of the subcommittee Raja Krishnamoorthi said in a statement: “Our concern about the underage use of dating apps is heightened by reports that many popular free dating apps permit registered sex offenders to use them, while the paid versions of these same apps screen out registered sex offenders.
“Protection from sexual predators should not be a luxury confined to paying customers.”
Match Group responded to the news by saying the national sex offender registry needs to be updated more regularly to help social platforms track sex offenders and block them from making accounts.
Earlier this month, a Norwegian government agency published research claiming that dating apps, mainly Grindr, Tinder and OkCupid, were violating privacy laws by sharing user data with advertising companies.
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