Free dating apps like Tinder, PlentyOfFish and OkCupid don’t screen for sex offenders because the platforms don’t have access to ‘reliable information for meaningful background checks’.
Match.com, which owns the free platforms, said in a statement to DailyMail.com that the group screens on their paid-for dating service, Match.com but doesn’t do the same on platforms that require users to hand over money.
A 16-month study by Columbia Journalism Investigations (CJI) found that in 10 percent of sexual assault incidents, users were matched with someone who had been accused or convicted at least once.
ProPublica claimed a Match Group spokesperson told them: ‘There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.’
The study found that almost all of these cases where users were matched with previous offenders used the free apps.
It also found that Match.com made up none of these cases. The company owns 45 dating services.
A new report claims that in 10 percent of sexual assault incidents, dating platforms matched users with someone who had been accused or convicted at least once. ProPublica claimed a spokesperson for Tinder, OkCupid and PlentyofFish told them: ‘There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products’. However a spokesperson denied aspects of the report in a statement to told DailyMail.com
ProPublica claimed PlentyOfFish admits it doesn’t attempt to verify whether users are truthful about their backgrounds. But a spokesperson told DailyMail.com. ‘We do not tolerate sex offenders on our site and the implication that we know about such offenders on our site and don’t fight to keep them off is as outrageous as it is false’
PlentyofFish states in its terms of use that it ‘does not conduct criminal background or identity verification checks on its users or otherwise inquire into the background of its users’. ProPublica said the brand admits it doesn’t attempt to verify whether users are truthful.
By signing up users are agreeing that they have not committed ‘a felony or indictable offense (or crime of similar severity), a sex crime, or any crime involving violence’.
It also relies on users to be truthful that they aren’t ‘required to register as a sex offender with any state, federal or local sex offender registry’.
However, Match Group denied aspects of the report in a statement to DailyMail.com on Monday.
‘This article is inaccurate, disingenuous and mischaracterizes Match Group safety policies as well as our conversations with ProPublica,’ a spokesperson told DailyMail.com. ‘We do not tolerate sex offenders on our site and the implication that we know about such offenders on our site and don’t fight to keep them off is as outrageous as it is false.
‘We use a network of industry-leading tools, systems and processes and spend millions of dollars annually to prevent, monitor and remove bad actors – including registered sex offenders – from our apps.’
Match Group owns 45 dating services. The study found that almost all of these cases where users were matched with previous offenders implicated the free apps. It found that Match.com made up none of these cases
‘As technology evolves, we will continue to aggressively deploy new tools to eradicate bad actors, including users of our free products like Tinder, Plenty of Fish and OkCupid where we are not able to obtain sufficient and reliable information to make meaningful background checks possible,’ Match Group added in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘A positive and safe user experience is our top priority, and we are committed to realizing that goal every day.’
Match.com lawyers told a judge in 2011 that ‘a screening process has been initiated,’ after Carole Markin held a press conference urging them to screen for sex offenders.
Markin got the rules changed following her assault in May 2010. She says the incident with Alan Paul Wurtzel was preventable.
Propublica reports a Match Group spokesperson told them the cases in CJI’s data ‘need to be put in perspective with the tens of millions of people that have used our dating products’.
Match Group told DailyMail.com: ‘We use a network of industry-leading tools, systems and processes and spend millions of dollars annually to prevent, monitor and remove bad actors – including registered sex offenders – from our apps’
The article states the group claimed ‘a relatively small amount of the tens of millions of people using one of our dating services have fallen victim to criminal activity by predators’ however it ‘takes the safety, security and well-being of our users very seriously’.
‘We believe any incident of misconduct or criminal behavior is one too many,’ the spokesperson reportedly added.
ProPublica reported that several free dating app users they interviewed reported seeing their attacker on the site even after making complaints, and in some cases after they’d been convicted for crimes as a result of meeting people on an app.
One victim claimed they’d reported an incident to the app administrators but didn’t get a response. The woman complained to ProPublica about a feature that deletes entire conversations when one user blocks the other, meaning there’s no evidence of negative exchanges.
Match introduced ‘a rapid abuse reporting system’ button in 2012 in an agreement with Democratic California Senator Kamala Harris.
Match.com lawyers told a judge in 2011 that ‘a screening process has been initiated,’ after Carole Markin (pictured) got the rules changed following her assault in May 2010. She says the incident with Alan Paul Wurtzel was preventable
Match Group is expected to make $800million in profits this year.
Amid calls for them to pay for a screening services like some other apps have, Propublica claimed Match said it would create ‘a false sense of security’, noting holes in government databases such as old images and partial information about the nearly 900,000 registered sex offenders in the US.
The report claims a Match.com spokesperson said: ‘Our checks of the sex offender registry can only be as good as the information we receive.’
The CJI study found that most of the dating app users who were accused of sexually assaulting someone they’d been connected with weren’t registered sex offenders at the time.
Some had been the subject of police complaints or had sex convictions but weren’t registered.
Match Group CEO Ginsberg has said in the past that their protocol is to kick a user off all of their apps if they violate terms.