Michelle Rowland, state and territory ministers and representatives of dating apps to discuss ‘unacceptable levels of abuse and harassment’ Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast The scale of sexual violence linked to online dating is “difficult to comprehend”, the communications minister has said, with representatives of Tinder, Bumble and Grindr due to join a national roundtable in Sydney on Wednesday. “People who cause harm in the digital world must be held accountable as they would for their act ..read more

Internet dating can feel soul-destroying, unnerving and transactional. Couples explain how their love lives were transformed when they finally stopped swiping When Georgie Thorogood’s date made a sleazy joke about “horsey girls carrying whips”, she knew it was time to make a hasty exit. After meeting Tom through a dating app in the summer of 2021, she had been hoping for some polite conversation over a few drinks, maybe some romantic chemistry if she was lucky. What she got was a two-hour rant about his ex-wife and some creepy innuendo. “I knew straight away he wasn’t for me. I politely told h ..read more

Facebook groups are outing male misconduct. But shouldn’t dating platforms be doing much more to help protect users? It had to happen. And now it has. Women are finally rising up against the pitfalls of dating app culture, and fighting back. Since March 2022, Are We Dating the Same Guy? Facebook groups have sprung up in almost every major American city, from New York to Little Rock, as a way for women to call out bad digital dating experiences. What started as small-scale communities are now spreading internationally and have grown to include hundreds of thousands of members. “Boys, frickin’ b ..read more

Swiping, benching, ghosting… Dating apps can be so cold. Now that disgruntled singles are realising the best way to meet someone is in real life, will a new world of ‘offline dating’ bring people back together? I can’t remember how we started talking, only that we were sitting on the rooftop of a friend’s house with the fake leather of the sofa underneath us tacky on the back of my thighs. He wasn’t my usual type. In his vintage football shirt and mullet he looked a bit like an art school student, but he was funny enough to make up for it. We spoke about the benefits of dating posh people and ..read more

On a Saturday shift, looking for something to do, Jasper Peach signed up for a dating site. That led to a free-flowing conversation that started and never stopped It sounds like a lie to say I wasn’t looking for a partner when I joined a dating and friendship site called Pink Sofa. This was in the pre-swipe era of 2010, when you wrote a whole profile and uploaded the text with a picture of yourself, stating if you were looking for friends, hook-ups or a relationship (or all three). I joined up during a Saturday shift at my desk job for something to do. The profile writing came easily. I’d had ..read more

Pictures attract most attention initially, but a profile’s text and information given is also important When swiping through online dating profiles, the same topics come up with alarming regularity: Sunday roasts, pineapple on pizza and a love of travel being but a few. But rather than sticking with the crowd, the use of metaphor and personal information is more likely to land you a date, research suggests ..read more

Our guide to the bad signs you can’t afford to ignore Picture it, a romantic restaurant, the perfect first date: the lights are low, the music soft, the food exquisite, and the flirting is moving from playful to saucy at just the right pace. And then, as you reach for the last chunk of focaccia … BAM! He licks every one of his fingers, grabs the bread and rips it in two – offering you the smallest half. Innocent mistake? Simple bad manners? Worse: it’s a red flag. Game over. Red flags started out with a serious mission: to alert women to signs of potential coercive control within their relatio ..read more

As part of a global romance special, we asked six UK emigrants to share their stories of hooking up around the world, from Beirut to Berlin Non-Brits on the boozy truth about dating in Britain I have often seen the dreariest, most potato-like English men elevated to stud status Adam Gabbatt, 36, New York City Being a foreigner abroad doesn’t necessarily make you interesting, but it does at least give you something to talk about. If, like me, you’re a bit boring, you can still rely on someone at a party, or in a bar, or – once – in the shower at a swimming pool being curious about your origin ..read more

I want sex and a relationship, but where will I find a man who will see me in the right way? I am a 78-year-old woman and would love to have an active sex life (as well as a relationship) but I do not know how to meet a man of similar age and interest. Do you have any advice – not on meeting men, necessarily, but on encouraging them to see me as a potential sexual partner? There are online dating sites for people in your age group. Such platforms can be useful for evaluating people before considering meeting up in person. They are also helpful because there is no ambiguity about why you are c ..read more

Vicky Littler and Anthony Weir respond to articles in the Guardian series Swipe right: the decade that changed dating Like Gatsby’s endless examination of Daisy’s green light across the bay, the singleton’s incessant search for “ideal” remains always out of reach (I’m a dating app evangelist – but even I’m not on Tinder any more, 15 August; Dating apps have made our love lives hell. Why do we keep using them?, 16 August). The promise exceeds what reality will deliver: the facade of beauty, wit and chemistry conjured through our screens belies doctored images, unrepentant creeps and bores. The ..read more