Australia

Image: Tinder

Tinder launched a new in-app dictionary which defines certain slang words used by many Gen Z singles, so that older daters can understand their language.

The Tinder Dating Dictionary, crafted by 18 to 25-year-olds at Tinder, was just unveiled in Australia. It provides a detailed list of common dating terminology, including popular terms like “rizz,” “cushioning,” and “kitten fishing.” The company responded to research that showed 62 percent of their target Gen Z market felt like they “spoke a different language” than older singles when it comes to dating.

The recent survey also found that 70 percent of 18-25 year-olds regularly use dating slang compared to 55 percent of 26 to 40 year-olds. Understanding the language, Tinder assumes, will help bridge this gap.

Image: Tinder

Tinder announced the launch of its latest safety feature to address abuse over the app, dubbed “House Rules.”

Tinder users must agree to the list of house rules outlined in a 20-page safety guide before they can download the service. The guide highlights the app’s safety features, including photo verification, how to report and block abusive users, according to News.com Australia.

The guide also provides tips for dating in person, including advice to Tinder users to schedule a video call beforehand to “get a vibe for the other person” according to Global Dating Insights. It also provides tips like sharing details and location of the date with friends or family beforehand, and keeping track of drinks to avoid spiking.

Representatives from dating app companies alongside ministers, victim-survivors, government officials and technology companies attended a roundtable in Sydney to discuss safety measures needed for dating apps. They discussed adding background checks and ID verification requirements, as well as increasing transparency and sharing of data between dating app companies.

According to The Guardian, Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that “there’s no one law that’s going to fix this issue,” placing the burden of responsibility on dating app companies.

The talks were led by federal communications minister, Michelle Rowland and included representatives for popular dating apps such as Bumble and Tinder. She noted the talks were an “important first step,” according to The Guardian. The roundtable was convened after a report from the Australian Institute of Criminology found that three quarters of survey respondents had been subjected to sexual violence on dating apps in the last five years.

Major Australian news outlet ABC is providing tips for dating app users to prevent scammers from obtaining their personal information.

A report from the Australian Competition Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch came out that dating app users lost $38 million to romance scammers on dating apps across the country in 2022 alone, alerting officials to a growing problem. Many dating app users have no idea how easy it is to gather information about a person from what they post in their profiles, so ABC obtained tips from security experts to help raise awareness. 

According to associate professor at Central Queensland University’s College of Information and Communication Technology Ritesh Chugh, scammers don’t need access to a lot of information. If they have a couple of pieces, such as your full name or birthdate, that could be enough for them to do some damage. And even if you aren’t posting this information to your profile, there are ways they can obtain it.

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.”

Dating app Bumble has launched a new series of videos catering to countries within the Asian-Pacific (APAC) market, specifically India, Singapore, and The Philippines, to lessen the stigma surrounding its dating app premise: that women make the first move.

APAC countries, especially India, are fast-growing markets for dating apps as younger daters opt for technology over traditional dating methods like matchmaking. However, approaches to dating and matchmaking vary greatly between countries according to Lucille McCart, communications director for Bumble APAC said in an interview with The Drum. For example, religion and religious customs are more important in Singapore and the Philippines compared to markets like Australia and New Zealand.

As a result, Bumble has launched new videos catering to specific markets. The videos for Singapore and the Philippines are called “It Starts With Hello,” designed to create more levels of comfort for women starting a chat over the app. “In Singapore, 87% of people surveyed believed that men should take the lead and only 7% said that this is what is expected of women. Things are slowly changing in this regard, and Bumble is here to advocate for further progress,” McCart told The Drum.