1 - Online Dating

Stechyson Article main overview

• Tea: a women-only dating app that allows users to review men, flag “red flags,” and verify safety credentials.

• Despite a major data breach, the app remains highly popular, with over 4 million users and 1.5 million on the waitlist.

• The article explores tensions between women’s safety, digital privacy, and gender politics online.

Why is the Tea app in demand?

• Many women feel unsafe on dating apps.

• 1 in 5 Canadian women face online harassment (CWF data).

• Indigenous, bisexual, and young women are at even higher risk.

• U.S. Pew (2023): 57% of women vs. 41% of men believe online dating is unsafe.

The app resonates because women “don’t feel safe,” but also raises …

ethical issues about reputation and privacy.

What were some legal warnings and criticisms about the tea app?

• Truth can defend against defamation, but false or exaggerated claims can lead to lawsuits.

• Privacy breaches and harassment posts may have criminal implications.

• Lawyers caution that posting reviews of men is legally risky.

3rd generation of online dating includes:

• Dating/matching apps in deciding who you match with, algorithm based.

• Normal way to meet people (tendency in young people, LGBTQ increased use)

• Shifting attitudes towards sex and the apps facilitating casual sex.

• Role of AI and chatbots (developing romantic relationships with chatbots)

In Oswald et al.’s 2020 study, how many men were sending unsolicited photos?

1,087 men (mainly young) -- 48% had sent an unsolicited photo.

In Oswald et al.’s 2020 study, why were men sending unsolicited photos?

 transactional mindset (most common), hoping to erasoe the recipient, hoping the recipient felt attractive.

"Though these findings suggest positive intentions on the part of the image senders, these motivations fail to acknowledge the inherent issue of ______ which is violated by the sending of unsolicited dick pics.

It is possible that this failure to acknowledge the issue of consent is related to male sexual __________; that is, men may fail to acknowledge that this is an issue because they themselves would appreciate reception of such images even when not solicited"

consent

over-perception bias

"Our results indicate that a significant minority of men reported sending dick pics with the intention of …

eliciting negative emotions in the recipients, primarily shock, fear, and disgust."

"Further, we determined that men who reported having sent unsolicited dick pics demonstrated higher levels of …

narcissism and endorsed greater ambivalent and hostile sexism than their non-sending counterparts."

"While there is likely to be some contingent of men who are well-meaning but may over or misperceive women's sexual interest, another portion are not worried about negative reactions because the act of violating consent in and of itself may serve them sexually or otherwise.

Specifically, it has been argued that the exercise of _____ through unsolicited sending of dick pics can serve to ritualistically __________, which are intrinsically rewarding"

power

(re)affirm masculine gender identity and bolster homosocial relations

Sexual harassment and violence could be only on online dating sites/apps but could also be used to then …

harass or commit sexual violence offline.

________ have higher risks of experiencing sexual harassment and violence in relation to online dating (as they also do offline).

Women and girls, people who are 2SLGBTQI+, and people who are racialized

"several authors contend that online sexual violence represents an acting out of (hetero)sexist scripts that presuppose, among other things,

men's “natural” orientation and entitlement to sex and women's responsibility to be accommodating and submissive"

"a catfish is defined as

“someone who uses false information to cultivate a persona online that does not represent their true identity . . . [which] commonly involves using stolen or edited photos usually taken from an unwitting third party,” or the creation of a completely fictitious persona."

Two main ways that catfishing happens:

“(1) obtaining another individual’s information without consent to gain access to their online profile or impersonating them by creating a fake profile; or

(2) creating an entirely fictitious profile” (Santi, 2019, p.78).

“Canada’s Criminal Code holds impersonators criminally liable only when the perpetrator intentionally and fraudulently …

impersonates another individual (living or dead) to benefit themselves or another party or intentionally impersonates an individual to cause a disadvantage to [their] victim(s)” (Santi, 2019, p.93).

What existing laws be used to respond to harms that can happen through online dating?

• Non-consentual sharing of images

• Fraud

• Exploitation

• Extortion

• Copyright

• Defamation

• Online harms act (proposed in 2024)