On Valentine's day, Arj and Jordan explore recent attempts to improve safety for users of dating apps, which include proposals such as users requiring 100 points of ID to register and the banning of people with criminal histories.

They discuss the unintended consequences of a tendency to deal with online safety challenges through greater policing or surveillance ("techno-carceral solutionism"), and the broader issue with viewing deep-seated and complex social issues through a narrow technology lens.

Links:

Article calling on dating apps to introduce criminal history checks (Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/24/call-for-dating-apps-to-require-criminal-checks-as-australian-government-plans-summit-on-safety

Article on new eSafety data about online dating (Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/feb/07/dating-apps-must-share-information-about-threatening-behaviour-says-australias-esafety-watchdog

Oped arguing for balancing of prevention with policing (The Conversation) https://theconversation.com/3-in-4-people-experience-abuse-on-dating-apps-how-do-we-balance-prevention-with-policing-198587

Surveillance does not equal safety (research paper on techno-carceral solutionism in dating apps) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/17416590221111827?utm_content=214678805&journalCode=cmca

National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 https://www.dss.gov.au/ending-violence

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