Dating Platforms: Why Safety Is Not Sexy
We can always say that something is “too risky”. Almost nobody ever says that something is “too safe”.
Early dating websites set out safety as a list of tips for users to read and act on, whereas on today’s dating platforms, safety is built into the product: verification, reporting, blocking, and the prompts that appear as people browse. That shift makes safety part of the environment, and users no longer need to build the habit themselves.
This article asks what that does to desire. The features that reduce risk also reduce the asymmetry attraction runs on. Treating safety as a quantity that can always be increased brings consequences nobody anticipated. And the work of witnessing, once carried by a whole community, is now carried alone by the person most at risk.
Whose safety, and at whose expense?
The article approaches that question from three angles: anthropology, epistemology and business. Each answers it differently.
A big thank you to our Researcher, Lauren Sharp, and to Daniel Fraga, for another thought-provoking article. We hope it keeps you company over your Wednesday coffee.
