Unsafe interactions in dating apps

Online dating is a way for people to meet and connect with potential romantic partners over the internet. It is usually done through a dating website or a dating app, which allows users to create a profile, browse and view other users’ profiles, and communicate with potential matches. Online dating can be a convenient and effective way to find a partner, especially for people who are busy or have difficulty meeting potential partners through traditional means. However, as every technology comes with its pros and cons, the same is with online dating. Risks associated with online dating include, for example, scamming, catfishing, and other forms of online fraud. The thesis focuses on exploring unsafe interactions among dating app users. The research questions considered for this thesis are: 1) What kind of unsafe interactions users report facing in dating apps? 2) How have the reported unsafe interactions been solved? To see what kind of unsafe interactions users have had through dating apps, the data has been collected through a discourses survey. The study employs “Discourses survey” strategy to analyze complex social actions, which identifies public discourse on a specific subject without researcher bias. The data was collected using predefined keywords related to unsafe interactions in dating apps in the following news databases: CNN, BBC, CNBC, DailyMail, FoxNews, and TheGuardian. The searches in the above databases resulted in 391 relevant research articles. The articles were coded into the following categories of unsafe online interactions using a predefined codebook: Information Breaches, Online harassment, Sexual solicitations, Exposure to explicit content, and different Crimes. Each category further included several subcodes. Most of the unsafe interactions reported in the news databases and included in the dataset were related to different crimes (81%), such as different scams, sexual assaults, murder, or fraud. The least were related to exposure