Dating App Executives to Meet with Australian Officials Over Safety Concerns

Executives from dating app companies operating in Australia have been called by the country’s officials to meet and discuss how to address safety concerns and the high rates of assault on their platforms.

According to Epoch Times, the talks will take place in early 2023, and focus on both legislative and security measures to address the problem. This comes in the wake of the Australian government’s move to allow its eSafety Commission to “regulate illegal and restricted content no matter where it’s hosted including on online app distribution services and search engines.”

The push for action come about because of a report released in October by the Australian Institute of Criminology, according to the Epoch Times, in which a jaw-dropping 75 percent of respondents said they had been subjected to some type of sexual violence via dating apps over the past five years. Researchers also found that a third experienced abuse from someone they met online dating, which included “sexual assault or coercion, reproductive and sexual-health-related abuse and in-person image-based sexual abuse.”

Sexual harassment was the most commonly reported abuse, as well as unsolicited images and abusive or threatening language. Researchers surveyed almost 10,000 online daters across Australia.

Another catalyst for the talks came from the death of a dating app user at the hands of a known domestic abuser from New South Wales. Criminologist Rachael Burgin called for the Australian government to ban people with violent criminal histories or alleged histories with a civil intervention order in place, from dating apps.

“We shouldn’t be waiting until there’s an absolute tragedy before we start reflecting on the way technology is used or can be used by perpetrators. We need to design for it,” Burgin told media outlet The Brag.

The eSafety Commission will likely push dating app companies to do more to keep users safe through easier reporting processes, support for victims of abuse, and policies to hold perpetrators accountable. A new online safety law the Commission introduced in early 2022 requires online service providers to report on how they are meeting basic Online Safety expectations; and gives the Commission the power to ask Internet Service Providers to block access to or remove intimate images or videos shared online without consent.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement: “Every Australian deserves to live free from harassment and all forms of violence, including those using dating apps.”

She went on to say: “The government expects dating apps and websites to do all they can to keep their users safe, such as providing easy-to-use reporting processes, support for victims of abuse, processes and policies that hold perpetrators accountable, and incorporating safety by design processes.”