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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   27760 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023

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Continuing on with The Motte's theme of the week, the Australian Federal Government has given the online dating industry a year to implement a 'voluntary' code of conduct in the face of 'online sexual violence' or presumably face regulation.

This ultimatum seems to be motivated by “An investigation by the Australian Institute of Criminology last year found three-quarters of online daters had been subject to some kind of online sexual violence in the past five years.”

Finding the referenced report 'Dating App Facilitated Sexual Violence' (their term, not mine) seems to include amongst other acts:

  • Pressured the respondent to give them information about their location or their schedule
  • Continued to contact the respondent even after they told them they were not interested in having a relationship with them
  • Pressured the respondent verbally to perform unwanted sexual acts (eg making promises, lying, repeatedly asking or insisting etc)
  • Sent the respondent an unwanted sexually explicit message
  • Sent the respondent an unwanted sexually explicit photo or video of themselves
  • Pressured the respondent to meet them in person when they did not want to
This would include dick pics or non-consensual sexually explicit language sent through a dating app, along with other mundane dating activity. The march to broaden the definition of sexual violence to include 'making women uncomfortable' continues.

Australia, is usually a follower of countries like Canada and the UK when it comes to these sorts of policies, but it does occasionally become the first mover when there is the chance of getting a cheap political win (and to seem like it is doing something in the face of more serious issues such as the housing crisis).

The linked news article is kind of buried down the state news media's front page and references the federal government's karen social services minister who has previously worked on 'cyber safety' committees. There is a fair chance this is a complete nothing burger that will blow over and is just the govt making noises rather than actually intending to follow through, but time will tell.

Well, if you followed the implied rules here, dating apps would be completely useless for men -- just that last point is enough; there's not much point in dating if you're not going to meet in person and there will 99% of the time be some reluctance expressed to take that step. But of course rules or not, Chad isn't going to follow them (and he'll usually get away with it) so nothing changes.

What does it matter what the rules are in the dating app? The actual rule is "don't creep your match out and she won't report you". That's also why most internet venues implement rule 0 usually phrased as "don't be a dick". That's the only real rule, the rest are guidelines on what to avoid.

You think women come on Tinder to read their rules and strive to enforce them on their matches in a literal manner like the nerd in school who makes sure the teacher doesn't forget about homework?

You’re 100% right that it’s just a generic “dislike” button. I think you can tell when you get reported on a dating app you get a little pop up that reminds you of the rules, be appropriate, etc. The only time I’ve ever get those messages are after I’ve ghosted or otherwise not engaged with some woman I was talking to/met up with.

Although where the actual guidelines probably have teeth are where the admins review complaints. Nothing ever happened when some ghosted woman mashes the dislike button, but if I were sending unwanted* dick pics or threatening messages presumably they would’ve done something about it.

But of course, it still means when some hot guy sends dick pics he won’t get in trouble but when a creep does he will. But that’s sort of what we want right? People don’t want to see a creep’s dick pics and the creeps should learn not to send dick pics!

The actual rule is "don't creep your match out and she won't report you".

This is the current rule, but the subtext of these articles and initiatives is that the apps need to be more proactive. This means having some bureaucrat or “community manager” reading your intimate messages, automatic AI photo identification, and other dystopian goodies.

That would be a problem regardless of how lax, or in which gender's favor, the rules are.

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