The dating app is trialling a new ID and photo verification feature in Australia and New Zealand from today, news.com.au reports.
The tool, which centres around facts such as date of birth and likeness, will “serve as an additional step to help users confirm the authenticity of profiles”, Tinder Australia shared in a statement.
“Over the past years, Tinder has been focusing on user safety with the development of 20 safety features and updates,” it revealed.
“We are constantly looking for ways to invest in innovative features that will enhance the user experience while raising the bar on safety within our industry.”
The “enhanced process”, which will be available to Aussies and Kiwis, requires a video selfie and a form of identification - either a valid driver’s licence or passport. Then, Tinder will compare the two to see whether the face in the selfie is the same one in the ID’s photo and on the dating profile.
Estimates from data company App Ape suggest that 76 per cent of US Tinder users are male. Photo / Mika Baumeister, Unsplash
Potential matches will be able to check whether a user has completed both the ID and photo verification processes, which will be shown by a blue checkmark on their profile. If only photo verification has been completed by the user, they’ll show a blue camera icon badge on their profile; if only ID verification has been done, a blue ID icon badge will be presented.
Tinder hopes to “take the learnings from this pilot as we explore expanding this feature out to other regions in the future”.
The new feature has been endorsed by both Tinder Australia’s local non-government partner Wesnet - a peak organisation for specialist women’s domestic and family violence services - and Teach Us Consent CEO Chanel Contos.
“We welcome this test and hope the pilot of ID + Photo Verification process will help verify that potential matches are real as well as deter those thinking about misusing the dating app,” Wesnet CEO Karen Bentley shared.
Contos chimed in, adding in a statement that she “look[s] forward to seeing the results of this pilot”.
Teach Us Consent CEO Chanel Contos attends the Marie Claire Women of the Year Awards at Rockpool on November 9, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
“I hope it will deter people who intend to use the app for harm, and allow users to feel safer to meet people and explore connections.”
Following her debut novel Consent Laid Bare hitting shelves, Contos recently partnered with Tinder to help inform users on healthy dating practices.
School of Swipe is an in-app crash course on all things dating in the modern world, which was created by Tinder in partnership with Contos and Max Radcliffe, a young men’s respectful relationships coach.
It also features an informative safety guide and a Don’t Be An Ick syllabus that gives expert advice on how to manage rejection and bad behavioural tendencies.
Radcliffe revealed that, through working with his clients, he tried to understand why they might have an extreme emotional reaction when being rejected. He came to the conclusion that, for many people, it came from a lack of emotional fulfilment outside of their romantic experiences.
“People get really obsessed with it, they hinge a lot of their happiness on whether they get a match, whether someone talks to them or not,” he shared.
“But if that’s the whole source of your happiness, that can actually trigger some really bad reactions, especially in men.”
