Alarm over smartphone date-locator - Stuff
Reuters
SMARTPHONE ALERT: A new phone feature makes flirting easy.
Anewsmartphone feature means singles can find out if would-be partners are nearby, but critics urge caution.
From today FindSomeone members can access a new geolocation feature on a mobile dating site that allows them to register their location and look for other singles.
"Every day you'd walk past interesting singles and you would have no idea. This takes the challenge out of meeting those people at a geographical level," said FindSomeone manager Rick Davies.
"You are sitting in the rugby stadium watching the opening ceremony of the world cup, filling in time ... you refresh the search and go 'Who's near me within 500m' and any singles in the stadium [who match your criteria] will appear on the screen.
"Then you would be able to send them a notification or start having a chat."
Davies said the feature takes "flirting into the online world".
"It's a great icebreaker. You can flick them a message and if you like what you see, you might go out for coffee or you could rendezvous at the bar down the road."
Clinical psychologist and co-director of Sex Therapy New Zealand, Robyn Salisbury, said the site raises alarms.
She said the process short-circuits the traditional methods in online dating that allow you to discover whether a person is "safe and desirable", such as emailing, talking on the phone and then meeting in a public place.
"You are shortcutting all of that at a moment when you are feeling lonely or horny."
Salisbury said the new mobile site is not dissimilar to meeting a stranger at a bar, but she argues against that too.
"I don't like people doing that either, depending on how it is then managed, whether alcohol has been consumed and what people want, but I hear so many stories of people getting hurt or feeling disappointed in themselves afterwards. I just think spontaneity in meeting a new potential partner doesn't rate highly."
FindSomeone insists the function is safe, and encourages users to read their trust and safety guide online.
"We've been operating 10 years now, and we've got a 24/7 trust and safety team," Davies said.
"We screen all profiles and we screen all photos.
"The geolocation feature is very much an opt-in feature. It's purely a choice."
- Sunday Star Times
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