I believe that dating apps should be made to implement facial recognition in accordance with a police data base in order to ban people reported and convicted of domestic violence, rape, murder, sexual violence and paedophilia (whereby people sexually abuse their partners children). This will greatly reduce the rates of abuse and sexual violence and will lessen the chances of someone meeting a person off of a dating app that has a history of abuse/violence/sexual offences. One example of a woman who was unfortunately murdered by a man she met on tinder (named Jesse Kempson) during sexual intercourse was Grace Millane. Had the dating app banned him due to having a history of engaging in violent sex, Grace might have still been alive today. 

A new study reveals 14% of rapes committed by an acquaintance occurred as a result of meeting via a dating app. Victims with mental illnesses and other vulnerabilities were the most targeted, and the attacks were significantly more violent. - Source: Brigham Young University

The reason that I believe facial recognition should be implemented for this cause is because it is easy to use a fake name and a fake number, so banning their profiles only motivates them to use fake details to then again sign up to the sites, so that they can find, manipulate and abuse potential victims. Thousands of lives, if not more, could be saved if this were to be implemented. Many dating sites already use facial recognition to confirm the identity of the users, so why can it not be used to ban them off of dating apps/sites? I stress that this needs to be implemented as soon as possible as to prevent further victims from meeting up with convicted and reported abusers. As to avoid a GDPR breach, I call for dating apps to change their terms and conditions in alliance with my proposition of the introduction of facial recognition and criminal databases, so that people can give informed consent to be subject to background checks and facial recognition software when signing up to these sites.

Some Extra Statistics: 

• Research this year by the National Crime Agency - known as Britain's FBI - found the proportion of female victims younger than 19 when they were sexually assaulted by someone met through a dating app had increased from 12 per cent to 22 per cent since 2016. (The Telegraph)
• At least one-third of users faced physical abuse from someone they met on an app, with 27 per cent of those reporting incidents of sexual assault or coercion, such as drink spiking, the researchers noted. (Wio News)
• Each year, approximately 100 murders are committed by online predators. (2Date4Love) 
  
• According to a study, people who use dating apps are twice as likely to experience sexual abuse. (2Date4Love)
• In the UK, dating app-related crimes have doubled between 2015 and 2018. (2Date4Love)

• Its 2016 report, Emerging New Threat In Online Dating, found the number of allegations of people who were raped during a first meeting after making contact through a dating app had surged six-fold in a five-year period. (ITV news) 

• The NCA found 184 people reported being raped by someone they met on a dating app or website in 2014 - up from 33 in 2009. 85% of the victims were women. (ITV news) 

• Rape is significantly under-reported and those attacked by someone they met on a dating site may be less likely to come forward, meaning the true number could have been 10 times higher, the NCA warned at the time. (ITV news)

• “The most recent figures from a sexual health clinic run by Solace Women’s Aid, which serves five London boroughs, found 25% of referrals were where the survivor had met the perpetrator on a dating app or website. Roisin Ross, a former independent domestic and sexual violence advisor for Solace, told ITV News: “It’s well known that survivors under-report abuse, so this does not capture the full extent of the prevalence of this issue.” - (ITV News)

Reference List:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/04/sharp-surge-rapes-assaults-linked-dating-apps/#:~:text=Research%20this%20year%20by%20the,22%20per%20cent%20since%202016.​

https://www.wionews.com/world/over-75-of-dating-app-users-experienced-sexual-violence-in-past-5-years-says-report-522284/amp

https://2date4love.com/dangers-of-online-dating-statistics/​

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-29/sex-offenders-and-abusers-given-platform-of-opportunity-on-dating-apps