Young Woman dies in Surfers Paradise after meeting a man just hours before from Tinder.
After a week a man is arrested after the woman fell from his 14th floor apartment balcony, leaving the scene before police arrived and pleading the 5th. Seems this guy recorded audio of her last moments on his phone. Will be interesting to see where this case goes in the next few months but does bring up some concerns with using such an app. Did she fall or was she pushed?
Firstly the minimum age to use this app is only 13. Already some mothers have made their young daughters delete their profile and remove this app after this hit the news. Mothers had no idea this app even existed. Figures vary and there is no firm statistics but some media are reporting of very young teenagers, that 1 in 3 of their friends have this app on their phone and use it. This is not the first case where things have gone wrong after meeting someone as a result of this app.
The app itself is a free download available on both ios and Android from their respective stores and only takes a minute to have your location broadcasted to anyone who also has the app. Just set your settings and within seconds you have a heap of eligible singles within xx miles of your location. Most seem to have photos and worse still photos with them with their kids or friends available for all to see. Others have generic photos. Swiping one way dismisses them but swiping the other means you are interested. If they also have swiped that they like then you, a match is made and they and or you can message each other direct from the app and arrange to meet within minutes.
Now this all sounds safe enough but the expectations of the two can differ wildly. A woman may be using it to get a normal ‘date’ and have only expectations of this, just as meeting someone from a dating site after exchanging several messages and getting the know them first. This app bypasses all this and they can meet (because they are already very near you) within minutes. The guy may have the expectation of meeting just for sex, whereas the woman is just looking to meet up. And as we have seen this expectation can turn very ugly when that expectation is not met. There are numerous cases of assault, rape and worse all from this simple app.
What can you do to keep yourself safe? Use common sense. This app in itself really is no different than meeting someone in a bar and the app itself is not the problem, just how it is being used. You should meet somewhere public and treat as you would meeting someone from a dating site. Don’t give out contact details. Have an exit plan, take a friend with you or have them nearby to bail you out if necessary. Make sure it is clear you are just meeting for a drink. Make sure there are no unreal expectations. If they don’t want to meet you on these terms then no matter how hot they were you may have well just dodged a bullet.
The danger of this app is using while drunk, or have had one too many and your judgement is impaired. How many times have we sent something we shouldn’t have when we have had too many and regret that in the morning. Same with this app. You may say things that you normally wouldn’t and unintentionally create an unrealistic expectation which may be difficult to extract yourself from.
So, nothing wrong with this app but just use with caution. Don’t do anything that you normally wouldn’t. You don’t know who or what you are meeting. That photo and age of the guy you are supposedly meeting may be nothing like the real person behind that profile. Always remember that. Exercise caution and enjoy the new opportunities this app provides. It makes it so much easier and quicker to meet the man of your dreams but also has its dark side.
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