Human traffickers are using popular dating apps to lure users into forced labor or sex work, and outside groups are urging Congress to impose safety standards.
“Offenders often exploit dating apps and websites to recruit — and later advertise — sex trafficking victims,” the FBI reported.
Rep. Ann Kuster, New Hampshire Democrat, and other members of the House Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence received a letter from former Sen. Rick Santorum, founder of the conservative group Patriot Voices, saying, “Congress should do everything within its power to ensure that American companies’ products, platforms, and services do not facilitate in any way the trafficking of human beings.”
Ms. Kuster said Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act “has prevented survivors from seeking justice” by shielding social media platforms from lawsuits.
The law, she said, “was not intended to protect dating apps when they fail to address known flaws that facilitate sexual violence.”
She said platforms must take better steps to banish sex offenders and other predators from the apps.
Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and OkCupid are top online dating apps. Others include Match Dating, Badoo, Grindr and Coffee Meets Bagel.
Tinder’s terms of use prohibit sex offenders and convicted felons from using the site, but the company does not screen every user.
Tinder did not immediately return a request for a comment about the policy.
Match Group, which operates Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and other dating apps, recently ended a partnership with Garbo, a nonprofit that briefly operated a background check tool for Tinder.
A company spokeswoman told The Washington Times that Match Group “has identified a new provider to offer users the option to utilize a low-cost, accessible way for users to gain information about their connections to better inform dating decisions, enhance safety, and empower users as they navigate online dating.”
The service will soon be available in the app, the spokeswoman said.
Match Group screens for sex offenders using state-provided lists for its Match dating app, but the screening policy does not appear to extend to the free versions of the apps and doesn’t apply to Tinder.
Match Group officials said company brands “use a network of industry-leading automated and manual moderation and review tools, technologies, processes and policies — and spend millions of dollars annually — to prevent, detect and remove people who engage in inappropriate behavior on our apps.”
Grindr, a dating app for the LGBTQ community, said it does not conduct criminal or sex offender background screenings but reserves the right to conduct them “at any time and to use available public records for any purpose.”
Researchers from Brigham Young University in Utah analyzed almost 3,400 sexual assault records from 2017 through 2020 and found 274 attacks during the first meeting after users connected on a dating app. Many of the victims were college students and people with self-reported mental illness. The study also found that these sexual assaults were more violent than assaults on dates that did not use online apps.
Researchers said the violent nature showed that sexual predators are using apps “as hunting grounds for vulnerable victims.”
Some of the victims are children.
The sheriff’s office in Hernando County, Florida, arrested James Peter Houllis, 56, last year and accused him of taking captive a runaway teenage girl he met and groomed on a dating site.
Sheriff Al Nienhuis refused to identify the dating app but said Mr. Houllis, who was charged with sexual battery, kidnapping and human trafficking, used a dating app to lure another young woman he groomed online while she was a juvenile.
Mr. Houllis is accused of selling the woman for sex to men in Colorado.
“Definitely a sick individual, to say the least,” Sheriff Nienhuis said.
On April 29, Mr. Houllis was charged with soliciting an inmate to kill one of the witnesses in the case. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 15.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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