Tinder to offer users safety features including ‘panic button’

Tinder will add safety features allowing users of the dating app the option to press a “panic button” or alert law enforcement to their locations.

Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, has invested in Noonlight, a location-tracking app that at the end of January will allow Tinder users to send a message to authorities in case of safety concerns, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Match Group also plans to introduce it to the several other dating apps it owns, including OKCupid, PlentyOfFish and Hinge, in coming months.

“You should run a dating business as if you are a mom,” Match Group chief executive Mandy Ginsberg said, according to the newspaper. “I think a lot about safety, especially on our platforms, and what we can do to curtail bad behavior. There are a lot of things we tell users to do. But if we can provide tools on top of that, we should do that as well.”

Tinder is among several apps that have been criticized for failing to weed out predators and recently beefed up safety measures in response, along with Uber, Airbnb and Care.com.

Users will have the option to add a badge to their profiles indicating they have the feature enabled.

“I liken this to the lawn sign from a security system,” Elie Seidman, Tinder’s CEO, told the Journal. “It tells people I am protected, and that is a deterrent.”

The feature will allow users to input information about their dates such as time or other details, which will be shared with authorities if an alert is triggered.