Diana Parry

So what we wanted to do with this safety map is put some of this work, take it off the hands of users and do it for them and put it in an interactive dynamic forum so that they could go online and figure out some of those safety features without so much personal work to them.

Yeah, well, what was surprising were some apps were quite transparent about some of the safety features and community guidelines and policies that they put in place, whereas other apps were much less transparent about what they do, if anything.

So we were just happy to compile that information.

And you're right, we did so across 30 different apps, those that were most popular in Canada.

We added in some diversity for different ages.

races, ethnicities, sexual identity, so that we had some diversity of apps within our group.

But over the 30, we found some are more transparent about the safety features that they put in place versus others.

Yeah, for sure.

Sweep fatigue came up quite a bit, but the fatigue was inextricably linked to this safety work that people were doing.

So people who identified as women and gender diverse were much, much, much more likely to say, I'm getting really tired of the effort I have to put in to keep myself safe, the amount of profiles that I have to go through.

The work I put in terms of setting up boundaries and trying to decide if I'm going to actually meet somebody in person and feeling frustrated with the quality of interactions that they were having online.

Well, one of the things that we wanted to do with a safety map was put a blurb around at the top of each app that we review.

We have a little blurb that gives you an overview of what that app specializes in.

So one of the ways that we can encourage people to make best use of their time on the app is to pick the one that's going to do what they want it to do.

So if you're looking for a more casual encounter, you can look on the safety map and look for an app that is going to facilitate those more casual type of connections and

If you're looking to date more seriously or looking for a relationship, you can find an app that is geared towards that.

Or, for example, if you're in a particular age group, so if you wanted to find the silver singles, for example, that's for people over a certain age so that you're not wasting your time on an app that isn't really going to be a good fit for you.

And so that might help address some of the fatigue that people experience.

Oh, 100%.

And that was part of what came up in our interviews is that people felt and experienced and were doing the work themselves.