The dating app Tinder has faced increasing scrutiny overabusive interactions on the service.
In November 2019, an Auckland man wasconvicted of murdering British woman Grace Millaneafter they met on Tinder.
Incidents such as these have brought attention to the potential for serious violence facilitated by dating apps.
Amid ongoingpressureto better protect its users, Tinderrecently unveiled some new safety features.
Does This Bother You?
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Previously unsafe
MyPh.D.
researchinvestigated experiences that make women feel unsafe on Tinder.
It showed the apps previous attempts to curb harassment have been inadequate.
TinderclaimedReactions would give users a fun and easy way to call out the douchey behavior of men.
The effect was to distance Tinder from its users behavior, rather than engage meaningfully with it.
Tinders Reactions feature, launched in 2017, held women responsible for policing the abusive behavior of men.
Tinder Blog
A swipe in the right direction
Tinders latest safety mechanisms are an improvement.
But the panic button is only available in the United States.
Given the service operates inmore than 190 countries, Tinder should consider rolling it out worldwide.
The new Does This Bother You?
feature could also prove useful in preventing overt harassment.
Sometimes, abusive behaviors can be initially interpreted as romantic or caring.
But after the number of his messages became torrential, she feared for her safety.
For experiences like this, Tinders Does This Bother You?
feature would be ineffective since the messages were sent via SMS.
But Tinder cannot identify communication on other services.
The inability to send photos, however, does prevent users from receiving unsolicited images within the app.
Tinders new safety features suggest the app is taking abuse more seriously.
But theyre not enough to prevent harassment of women via the platform.
Shutterstock/Kaspars Grinvalds
Taking users seriously
For the Does This Bother You?
feature to be effective, Tinder needs to be better at responding to users reports.
Some of the women I interviewed stopped reporting other users bad behavior, because of Tinders failure to act.
The apps new safety features will only help users if Tinder does better to address user reports.
