Afterglow: A New Safe Dating App

Afterglow is a new safe dating app for university students. Their main focus is on promoting safe dating and safe relationships by having measures in place to help prevent domestic abuse, violence and sexual harassment. It also has features to prevent the misuse of the app by minors, fake users and registered offenders.

Afterglow’s ethics very much align with the university’s ethics to promote student voice as well as keep students safe on and off campus. In the UK, there are over 20 Tinder crimes a week and since 2015 dating apps have solicited over 30 cases of child rape. This puts students using dating apps, such as Tinder, at risk of being subject to horrific crime.

Recently, more students have been turning to online dating apps as a form of socialising and making friends especially during the early months of joining university. This means contact between strangers is exceptionally high in this time. Afterglow’s ethics mean that they refuse to allow crimes to continue and would rather that students were kept safe while dating.

How does it work?

On Afterglow, you can rest assured that every profile is a verified university student and, more importantly, a real person. This is because the app requires a 3-step verification process. It’s simple and quick but it’s targeted at preventing non-university attendees, minors and criminals from accessing and abusing the app.

In conjunction with this, there is a built in safety center where you can access advice and support. Afterglow are hoping that in this section they will be able to provide content from registered charities. The app offers a variety of safety features that no other dating app offers. These include an easy access panic button, the option to add emergency contacts and the ability share your live location on dates. You can also rate how safe you felt on the date. There is currently no dating app (as far as Afterglow are aware) that combines the social culture of university with safe dating features.

You can find full details of the new app here. You can also sign up for the beta version of the app on that website.

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