Researchers map the safety landscape of 30 dating apps after interviewing 48 users

"Exhausting and unsustainable." That is how many dating app users described the effort of staying safe while swiping, according to a research team led by the University of Waterloo. The description came up repeatedly in interviews with 48 users across Canada -- women and gender-diverse people who had normalized unwanted sexual messages and boundary violations as part of the online dating experience.

Those interviews have now produced something practical: an interactive Safety Map launched to coincide with International Women's Day. The tool synthesizes safety policies and features from 30 different dating apps, including Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr, and presents them alongside the real experiences of users who navigate these platforms daily.

What the interviews revealed

The research team, led by Dr. Diana Parry, a professor in the Faculty of Health at Waterloo, conducted in-depth interviews as part of a SSHRC-funded research program carried out in collaboration with Concordia University, North Carolina State University, and community partners including sexual assault support organizations.

Participants described a consistent pattern: repeated experiences of unwanted sexual messages, boundary violations, and emotional fatigue. Many had come to view these encounters as a normal cost of using dating apps rather than as failures of platform design or enforcement. The emotional labor required to manage safety -- screening profiles, planning exit strategies, debriefing after bad experiences -- fell disproportionately on women and gender-diverse users.

"We were struck by how normalized unsafe or uncomfortable experiences had become and by the amount of unpaid emotional labour users, particularly women, require to stay safe," Parry said. "Many participants described this as exhausting and unsustainable, which helps explain growing swipe fatigue and disengagement from dating apps."

From personal burden to shared resource

The Safety Map is designed to address a specific gap: most dating app users are expected to figure out safety on their own, piecing together information from scattered app settings, news stories, and word of mouth. The map centralizes that information, presenting an analysis of how each app handles blocking, reporting, identity verification, and other safety-relevant features.

"The Safety Map translates lived experiences into a public-facing resource that helps users anticipate risks, identify supports and make informed decisions," Parry said. "It shifts safety away from something individuals are expected to figure out on their own to something that can be collectively understood."

While the tool is designed for general use, it may be particularly valuable for communities that face disproportionate safety risks in digital dating spaces. The researchers framed dating apps as digital leisure environments -- not simply relationship tools -- and emphasized that safety outcomes are shaped by technology, culture, and power structures, not just individual choices.

The scale of the issue

Hundreds of millions of people use dating apps worldwide. In Canada, roughly one in three people report having used one, with 47% of users identifying as women. The heaviest usage falls in the 18-to-34 age range. These platforms have become embedded in modern social life rapidly enough that safety infrastructure has not kept pace with adoption.

The companion study, titled "A thousand catcalls: Survivors' experiences of sexual violence in online dating," documents specific patterns of harm. The research applies a trauma-informed approach developed in consultation with sexual assault support organizations, grounding the Safety Map in both user experience and clinical expertise.

What the research does not address

The study's sample of 48 users, while producing rich qualitative data, cannot capture the full diversity of experiences across different platforms, demographics, and geographies. The Safety Map covers 30 apps but does not evaluate how effectively each app enforces its stated policies -- a gap between written rules and lived reality that many users would recognize. The research also focuses on Canadian users, and patterns of harassment and platform response may differ significantly in other cultural and regulatory contexts.

The Safety Map is publicly available online, and the underlying research has been published as part of the broader SSHRC-funded program.