For millions of women and gender-diverse individuals, swiping on a dating app feels less like looking for a connection and more like navigating a digital minefield. The sheer volume of harassment, unwanted sexual messages, and boundary violations has created an exhausting epidemic of “swipe fatigue”.
Now, perfectly timed for International Women’s Day, researchers at the University of Waterloo have launched a powerful interactive tool called the Safety Map to help users anticipate risks and safely navigate these digital spaces.
Exhaustion of digital dating
Globally, hundreds of millions of people use dating platforms, with young adults aged 18 to 34 being the most active. In Canada, roughly one in three people report having used a dating app, with 47 per cent of those users identifying as women.
Despite this widespread adoption, the research team discovered a disturbing normalisation of digital harassment. After conducting in-depth interviews with 48 Canadian app users, the team found that participants repeatedly faced unwanted sexual messages, boundary violations, and emotional fatigue.
“We were struck by how normalised unsafe or uncomfortable experiences had become and by the amount of unpaid emotional labour users, particularly women, require to stay safe,” said Dr Diana Parry, a professor in the Faculty of Health and the project’s lead researcher. “Many participants described this as exhausting and unsustainable, which helps explain growing swipe fatigue and disengagement from dating apps”.
Navigating the risks
The publicly available Safety Map is designed to translate lived experiences into a public-facing resource, making safety knowledge visible, practical, and accessible. Dr. Parry noted that it shifts safety away from being something individuals have to figure out on their own to something that can be collectively understood.
Key aspects of the new Safety Map include:
- A comprehensive analysis of safety policies and features across 30 different dating platforms, including popular apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr.
- Actionable resources to help users anticipate risks, identify available support, and make informed decisions.
- A trauma-informed approach was developed in direct collaboration with community partners, such as sexual assault support organisations.
The tool, which frames dating apps as digital leisure spaces shaped by technology, culture, and power, is intended for the general public but may be especially useful for communities that face disproportionate safety risks online.
The SSHRC-funded initiative was developed in collaboration with researchers and graduate students from Waterloo, Concordia University, and North Carolina State University. The university also highlighted related research, pointing to a study co-authored by Parry titled A thousand catcalls: Survivors’ experiences of sexual violence in online dating.
