Contributed by: kellyseal on Thursday, October 05 2023 @ 10:45 am
Last modified on Thursday, October 05 2023 @ 10:53 am
The Australian government told the dating app industry that they must improve safety standards on their apps or risk being forced to make changes through legislation. Dating app companies were given until June 30th, 2024 to develop a “voluntary code of conduct” to address user concerns about safety.
According to the Associated Press, the government was basing its decision on new research that found three-quarters of dating app users in Australia between 2016 and 2021 had suffered some form of sexual violence. The research was conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology and published last year.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland noted that dating apps have become the most popular way to meet people, and therefore must improve when it comes to protecting the people using them. “The government is concerned about rates of sexual harassment, abusive and threatening language, unsolicited sexual images and violence facilitated by these platforms,” she said, according to Associated Press[*1] .
The government is giving the dating app companies some choice and flexibility when it comes to how they improve safety. For example, Rowland noted that the companies could improve engagement with law enforcement or find ways to support people who are “at-risk users.” The companies could also provide more transparency about harms when improving safety policies and practices.
Match Group, which owns popular dating apps Tinder and Hinge, had hired an in-house Chief Safety Officer a few years back who’d implemented some safety protocols on the app, including a partnership with security service Garbo that offered background checks on users. However, the company parted ways with its executive and has since ended the partnership with Garbo.
Garbo noted in an announcement about the break-up that dating app companies like Match Group were the problem as they put profits ahead of user safety. Garbo founder Kathryn Kosmides wrote in the blog post: “It’s become clear that most online platforms aren’t legitimately committed to trust and safety for their users…There are some great companies that do take our mission to heart, but the sad reality is that most social networks, dating apps and online platforms care more about the bottom-line than they care about you.”
Match Group responded to the announcement by the Australian government, releasing a statement that read: “Safety guides everything we do at Match Group and we share the Australian government’s commitment to strengthen Australians’ safety.” It went on to say: “This is an important conversation that should not be limited to a single industry but extend to address these systemic issues that occur everywhere, from public streets to workplaces and to social media platforms – ensuring a holistic approach to cracking down on abusers and bad actors.”
Bumble has not yet responded to the directive.