Tinder Ramps of Safety With Background Checks and New Support Services

Tinder is adding more features to ramp up safety for its users, including background checks and educating staff on how to handle reports of abuse.

The dating app company announced the new measures in a blog post, noting that all customer service team members are now being trained on “how survivors might respond to sexual violence and describe those experiences, how to recognize serious reports that may use vague language, and how to respond in a trauma-informed manner to these types of reports,” according to the company’s blog post.

Last year, Tinder’s parent company Match Group invested in the safety nonprofit Garbo, which will be providing the background checks for users. Garbo can check a wide variety of public records on a potential match, and notify a user if the match has a history of violence, as well as any other potential issues like DUIs or vehicular manslaughter. The company doesn’t include drug possession charges or minor traffic violations in its reporting. 

Tinder has also been working with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) to help train its customer service team on how survivors may report abuse or harassment, including how to identify serious reports, even if the survivor is vague about describing the events due to trauma.

The training is a requirement for joining Tinder’s customer service team and provides instructions on how to respond to these reports when they occur.

Tinder is also providing more support and transparency for those reporting claims of abuse and harassment, following scathing reports from news outlet ABC Australia that showed little action or response from Tinder after a report was submitted. In addition, a study came out in 2019 that showed Tinder and other apps allowed known sexual predators to use their services, since there were no background checks available on the apps. 

Now, Tinder has set up a Safety Center and dedicated Crisis Text Line so that survivors have options as to how to report abuse and harassment, so that more will feel comfortable reporting. The Safety Center is available from anywhere on the app, so users can reach it without any problems. 

In addition, users can now report someone they have already unmatched with, even if they have waited a while to report the abuse. They can also choose whether they want follow-up information on any actions taken by Tinder to address the report.

Tracey Breeden, Match Group’s first-ever VP of Safety and Social Advocacy, said of the new training program and features: “Our members are trusting us with an incredibly sensitive and vulnerable part of their lives, and we believe we have a responsibility to support them through every part of this journey, including when they have bad experiences on and off the app.”

Clara Kim, vice president of Consulting Services at RAINN, added in the statement: “by adopting more trauma-informed support practices, Tinder will be better positioned to support members who may have experienced harm and take faster, more transparent action on bad actors.”