There is rarely a day goes by that I don't hear someone mention Tinder or "swiping right". The Grindr app boasted in 2014 that they had had over 3 million photographs being sent a day (of cats i'm sure!) and over 10 million downloads. The popularity of this app has no doubt grown since. The app serves as a way for gay men to contact each other and meet up for intellectual conversations. Dating apps like this one, however, have a dark side.
I am sure that for every person with a darker ulterior motive there are several more with a perfectly innocent reason for using the app. A freedom of information request was sent to the Police in England and Wales and 30 forces revealed their statistics. There were 55 incidents of crime directly mentioning Grindr or Tinder. These incidents include reports of violent and sexual crimes. This begs the question: how long will it be before a dating app is used to arrange a meeting that would end in murder?
There have been documented incidents where murders have taken place following hook ups on various dating sites that went wrong. Dating apps look good on paper as does most things until they are abused by people who can see room for exploitation. The police report mentioned above shows that in 2014 there were 204 incidents of crime linked to the two apps and 412 last year alone. This may be because the apps have become more popular therefore the probability of users with criminal intent would naturally increase.
The real worry here is that the "sextortion" that takes place on these apps and websites is easily accessible by children. There are more children that ever before that have a smart phone or access to the internet that is not monitored. It is easy enough for someone to sign up for these sites and pose for a provocative picture. Most of these sites and apps also request access to the location of the user. This is something I would strongly advise against. If you want to put your location on a profile that strangers can see then I would say it is best to use the nearest large town or city to stay as anonymous as possible.
I can understand why people would use these apps and sites; most of the people I have spoken use the sites for their ease of use when they are looking for particular company. Each to their own. These apps can be used for meeting friends and like minded individuals but caution is definitely advised.
So, could a dating app kill you? Certainly. There have been many crimes that have implicated the use of Grindr and Tinder to lure victims to secluded areas and then mug the individual or do much worse. Meeting strangers presents a very real risk and if you want to meet someone then do it in a public place (and stick to public places) or with a friend or someone you trust. Doing a search of the individuals name in Google should also be a good indicator of whether this person is real or a "catfish". Catfish are a totally different topic that requires it's own post entirely.
What are your experiences of dating apps or websites? Let me know in the comments or contact me at thekbblog@gmail.com / @TheKBBlog .
