Popular Dating App Tinder Says “There Are Definitely Registered Sex Offenders on Our Free Products.”
Dallas based Match Group, owner of 45 online dating brands including the most popular free online dating services, Tinder, OkCupid or PlentyofFish, does not screen for registered sex offenders singing up with the company’s free apps.
A 16-month investigation by Columbia Journalism Investigations discovered that Match Group carries out background checks for its paid services. According to a Match spokesperson, the company cannot implement a uniform screening protocol because it doesn’t collect enough information from its free users — and some paid subscribers — even when they pay for premium features.
With no clear screening practices to prevent registered sex offenders from signing up, a Match Group spokesperson told CJI, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.”
The ProPublica and CJI investigation discovered that 10 percent of over 150 sexual assaults involving dating apps derived from dates where users were paired with individuals previously arrested or convicted for sexual assault.
In a statement to Business Insider, a Match Group spokesperson called the ProPublica/CJI story “disingenuous” and “inaccurate.” According to BI the spokesperson did not contest any specific facts reported in the story but stated that Match Group doesn’t collect enough information on users of free apps to conduct meaningful background checks.
The report identified several registered sex offenders who were able to continue using Match Group dating apps after being convicted.
Michael Miller, a Colorado man, was convicted of raping a woman he met through OkCupid in 2015. He later created a new OkCupid account and, according to the investigation by ProPublica and CJI, was allowed to continue using the platform for months.
On PlentyofFish in late 2016, Susan Deveau saw Mark ‘s dating app profile where it stated he wanted “to find someone to marry.” Papamechail was at the time a three-time convicted rapist who is designated by Massachusetts as a dangerous registered sex offender. Months after a third date, “Deveau became the second woman to report to police that Papamechail raped her after they had met through a dating app.”
A Pennsylvania man, Seth Mull, had a 17-year history of sexual offences before starting to use PlentyofFish in 2017 — that year, according to the investigation, the dating site matched him with a woman who later accused him with rape.
Read the full ProPublica/CJI report here.
Read the full Business Insider story here.