This 3 out of 4 figure comes from the category of "online sexual violence" which includes behavior like being the recipient of abusive language. Being sent an expletive after rejecting a potential date is counted as sexual violence. Nearly as many men (61.5 % of straight men) as women (79.1%) have experienced "dating app facilitated sexual violence".
Even more eyebrow-raising was the claim that 27% had been subject to sexual assault or coercion. In particular, the fact that 3/4 as many men have experienced sexual coercion as women (16.2% vs. 22.5%). The question used for "coercion" was very interesting to say the least:
> Pressured the respondent verbally to perform unwanted sexual acts (eg making promises, lying, repeatedly asking or insisting etc)
So a woman giving a false number for her number of past sexual partners is counted as sexual coercion ("lying"). Also "making promises" is somehow counted as coercion? If a woman promises me she's into me for a long-term relationship and she subsequently breaks up with me after a few dates, is she a perpetrator of sexual violence on account of making and then breaking a promise? According to the survey, the answer is yes.
There's an unfortunately common trend of research that produces very high rates of respondents (supposedly) experiencing sexual violence, by asking questions that include a range of behavior well beyond what the most people - and the law - consider sexual violence. No, if a woman lies about her body count or doesn't uphold promises to date long term she's not perpetrating sexual violence. While I don't doubt that plenty of people have bad experiences with dating apps, the research backing the claims made in this article seems more in the vein of activism than scholarship.
I wanted to dig into the claim that 3 out of 4 dating app users had been victims of sexual violence. The actual study comes from this report: https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-10/rr25_sexu...
This 3 out of 4 figure comes from the category of "online sexual violence" which includes behavior like being the recipient of abusive language. Being sent an expletive after rejecting a potential date is counted as sexual violence. Nearly as many men (61.5 % of straight men) as women (79.1%) have experienced "dating app facilitated sexual violence".
Even more eyebrow-raising was the claim that 27% had been subject to sexual assault or coercion. In particular, the fact that 3/4 as many men have experienced sexual coercion as women (16.2% vs. 22.5%). The question used for "coercion" was very interesting to say the least:
> Pressured the respondent verbally to perform unwanted sexual acts (eg making promises, lying, repeatedly asking or insisting etc)
So a woman giving a false number for her number of past sexual partners is counted as sexual coercion ("lying"). Also "making promises" is somehow counted as coercion? If a woman promises me she's into me for a long-term relationship and she subsequently breaks up with me after a few dates, is she a perpetrator of sexual violence on account of making and then breaking a promise? According to the survey, the answer is yes.
There's an unfortunately common trend of research that produces very high rates of respondents (supposedly) experiencing sexual violence, by asking questions that include a range of behavior well beyond what the most people - and the law - consider sexual violence. No, if a woman lies about her body count or doesn't uphold promises to date long term she's not perpetrating sexual violence. While I don't doubt that plenty of people have bad experiences with dating apps, the research backing the claims made in this article seems more in the vein of activism than scholarship.
As an Australian, I would say take anything with a .au at the end of it with a very large grain of salt.