The latest study by Pew Research Center showed that harassment is indeed a severe problem for online dating. Last time, we discussed more precisely what groups are more subject to harassment and how to avoid it. According to researches, 37% of users of mobile dating apps have met a harasser, or a person who continued to pursue them even after he or she said that they wanted to stop communication. About 35% of users received sexually explicit messages, 30% complained that they were called offensive words, and 10% of respondents even got threats of physical harm. Harassment is often gendered as women who want to meet local men get harassing content in 57% of cases. LGBT users also reported offensive content in a large number of cases (56%).
Tough harassing behavior can be a real problem, it shouldn’t stop anyone from finding love. If you are one of the single women who want to safely meet local men online, check what you can do to stay safe using apps.
Things You Can Do to Protect Yourself From Harassment
Whatever dating app you choose, following a few simple rules will help you to protect yourself against harassment.
- Make others respect your boundaries. Remember that it’s Ok to speak about your feelings, even if you don’t like a person. Say something like, “Sorry. I’m not sure that we are a match. It is better for us to move forward separately. I wish you to find a person more suitable for you.” Sometimes women who want to meet local men can put up with offensive words but they should remember that nothing good can start with rudeness. Respecting yourself is a must to find a good partner online.
- As usual, an adequate person will agree to stop a relationship. If he/she continues to disturb you, you can warn him/her that you don’t want to continue talking and will have to use more advanced measures, block, or report. Remember that your feelings matter.
- Some women who use apps to meet local men get really offensive messages. It is important to capture screenshots of all the texts that you find embarrassing. After you ask the partner to stop, you can use screenshots as evidence and report the problem.
- Don’t blame yourself for any reason if you decide to stop a relationship. You couldn’t know everything from the very beginning. You can only try to spot some signals and react to them next time you meet a stranger who is prone to harassing actions.
- Stay in the app and don’t share your contacts before you are sure that this person suits you. Sometimes women register in the app to meet local men and feel uneasy to disclose their personal details to complete strangers. Remember that it is ok to chat with a person for some time before sharing your data.
Safety Features Provided by Dating Apps
In addition to being careful yourself, choose dating apps with safety features. Let’s review some examples of the safety features to look for.
- Safe contact. Tune2Love is one of the apps that actively supports safe dating. For women who want to meet local men, they introduced a special feature that allows users to create lists of trusted contacts. A woman adds the info about her date, partner, his contacts, and social networks. If she doesn’t launch the app in the specified time, her trusted contact automatically gets a message that something is wrong and worth checking.
- No location sharing. Check that the app you use doesn’t track or share your location with other users. Though connecting people by their vicinity can seem a nice option, it is also a risk factor for women who want to meet local men for a serious relationship.
- Advanced authentication. Features similar to “Safe contact” are useless if anyone can access your app instead of you. So, pay attention to the app with advanced logging options, such as biometrics and PIN.
- Some apps, like Spectrum, provide features for automatic content analysis. This includes the checking of messages to prevent sexual grooming or the prospect of sex trafficking. Other apps utilize AI to detect any inappropriate images and automatically blur them with a request to the receiver to either get or decline the message.
- The selfie request feature lets users ask for a photo upon receiving a message from someone. Some users claim that the perfect match they find can be a faked one. The selfie request helps to identify whether the person has provided a real photo. An alternative to the selfie request is a video chat, which will leave no doubts about the reality of a person.
- Blocking and reporting. Though these features are quite basic ones, they are very helpful as they give you a way of dealing with harassers yourself.
Tough mobile dating apps open a whole new world of dating opportunities, they also put you at the risk of harassment. The stats show that women who want to meet local men become victims more often than men. However, by choosing wisely your dating app and following a set of personal rules, you can protect yourself against the unwanted behavior of other users and actually meet someone you will love.