Australian report shows dating app users victims of drink spiking, sex lies

A shocking one in 10 dating app users have been the victims of drink spiking to coerce them into sex, a new report has revealed.

A shocking one in 10 dating app users have been the victims of drink spiking to coerce them into sex over the past five years, a report has revealed.

As well, 14.3 per cent reported that their online dates had either refused to wear a condom or took one off during intercourse without their consent and lied about their sexual health, according to the report by the country’s peak criminal research body.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has joined the call for dating apps to be overhauled after finding that predators are hiding behind the security features that are supposed to make online match-ups safer.

The institute, which found that one third of dating platform users have been the victim of in-person sexual violence by someone they met online over the past five years, said up to half of those victims reported that the person had subsequently deleted their own account or unmatched or blocked the victim to hide their conversation history.

It comes as The Daily Telegraph continues its Swipe Them Out campaign - a call to rid dating apps of repeat, violent offenders. The campaign follows discussion around the alleged murder of Dannielle Finlay-Jones, with that matter yet to be determined by the courts.

A man who Danielle Finlay-Jones met on a dating app has been charged with her alleged murder last month.

Dr Angela Hardy was a victim of violence after meeting serial stalker Paul Lambert on Tinder. He was shot by police after stabbing Dr Hardy and threatening to burn her alive. Picture: John Appleyard

The conversation history between victim‑survivors and perpetrators is an important piece of evidence when reporting the behaviour to the platform or law enforcement, the AIC said.

It has called for dating apps to have to make sure the conversation histories are captured.

“Ensuring the conversation history is retained regardless of the match between users or a user’s account status is therefore important” it said.

“There is also a need to monitor the impact of safety strategies on sexual harassment, aggression and violence victimisation among users, due to the potential for such strategies to be bypassed or even exploited by perpetrators.”

Its groundbreaking report - one of the few anywhere in the world exploring the prevalence and nature of technology-facilitated sexual violence on dating apps- found that as well as drink spiking and removing condoms, 12.8 per cent of those who responded to their survey said someone they met on a dating platform had lied about their sexual health, including whether they had herpes or other sexually transmitted diseases.

Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowlands has flagged calling a national summit this month to find ways to stamp out violent ­criminals from dating apps as tech giant Match Group – which ­operates Hinge and Tinder – said it was willing to work with the government and peak bodies on the issue.

The AIC called for “Safety by Design” principles to be embedded in the dating apps.

It said that there should be easy and accessible processes for reporting so-called DAFSV (dating app facilitated sexual violence) on these apps and online dating platform operators should ban perpetrators from creating new accounts, which can be controlled through design features such as multi-level identity verification.