Dating apps like Tinder may be leading to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, a new study has found.
Online dating services are becoming more prolific in the dating world than even just a few years ago. A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 59 percent of Americans now consider such websites an acceptable place to meet dating partners.
Rhode Island is one of the states where greater-than-normal numbers of people have been diagnosed with STDs between 2014 and 2015.
In Little Rhodey, the number of new HIV infections has risen by 33 percent, gonorrhea cases have increased 30 percent, and syphilis is up 79 percent, health officials report. The greatest increases were seen among young adults, African-Americans, and those of Hispanic heritage. Men who have sex with other men were found to be at the highest risk of contracting syphilis, accounting for nearly 75 percent of new cases.
"The increase has been attributed to better testing by providers and to high-risk behaviors that have become more common in recent years. High-risk behaviors include using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters, having sex without a condom, having multiple sex partners, and having sex while under the influence of drugs or alcohol," The Rhode Island Department of Health reported.
As OK Cupid, Tinder and Plenty of Fish become more popular, some health officials are placing the blame on dating sites for the rise in STDs. This has led to some critics suggesting these outlets for casual sex should do more to help spread information concerning safe sex practices.
Dating apps have been implicated before for an increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted illnesses. In June 2014, health officials in the United Kingdom reported 50 cases of syphilis in South Wales over the previous six months, to numbers nearing those seen in all of Wales during 2013. They concluded that online dating apps may have played a role in the rise of new cases.
Not all researchers agree, with Brian Mustanski from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine taking an opposing view. A study he published in 2007 concluded that men seeking other men through dating apps will have more frequent sex than men meeting male partners through other methods. However, those who met through traditional methods, such as bars, undertook riskier sex than those who met online, according to Mustanski and his team.
"These data suggest that men who engage in high-risk sex with other men use the Internet as a tool for meeting sexual partners, not that meeting partners online causes high-risk sex," Mustanski wrote in an article detailing his study.
Some dating sites aimed toward gay and bisexual men have already taken steps toward addressing safe sex practices, including asking members to regularly update their HIV status.
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