Heather Richardson launches campaign for safer dating app use

A LOCAL woman has launched a national campaign calling for stronger safety measures on dating apps.

Heather Richardson, founder of Safer Dating UK, has started a UK Parliament petition urging the Government to introduce mandatory identity verification for dating app users and tougher safeguards on dating platforms.

The campaign has its roots in the Forest of Dean but aims to bring about changes affecting dating app users across the UK.

Ms Richardson said the idea for the campaign came after what she described as a traumatic relationship that lasted around 16 months after meeting someone through a dating app.

Like millions of people every year, she joined an online dating platform hoping to find a genuine relationship. Instead, she said she experienced coercive control, emotional and psychological abuse, as well as physical abuse.

Because there is an active police investigation, Ms Richardson said she is unable to discuss the specific details of her own case. However, she said the experience exposed what she believes are significant weaknesses in the safety measures used by many dating platforms.

She said that, like many survivors, she later learned information she wished she had known before entering the relationship.

She stressed that her campaign is not intended to discourage online dating or suggest that dating apps are inherently unsafe.

Instead, she hopes to encourage discussion about introducing practical safeguards that make the platforms safer while still allowing millions of people to continue finding successful relationships online.

She said: "I don't believe dating apps are inherently the problem, and I recognise that millions of people form happy, healthy relationships through them every year.

"However, they can also provide an opportunity for people with abusive intentions to present a false version of themselves. Many users openly describe themselves as kind, caring, trusting and looking for a genuine relationship, qualities that should be celebrated, but which some perpetrators may seek to exploit.”

Since launching Safer Dating UK, she has been contacted by survivors from across the country who have shared stories of domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking and sexual violence following relationships that began through dating apps.

While every case is different, she said those conversations have strengthened her belief that her own experience was not an isolated incident and that stronger safeguards deserve serious consideration.

Through her petition, Ms Richardson is calling on the Government to consider making government-issued photo ID verification mandatory for all dating app users, introducing measures to help prevent people convicted of the most serious offences from creating dating app accounts, and improving reporting systems while increasing accountability for dating platforms operating in the UK.

She emphasised that the campaign is not about punishing offenders twice or preventing people from finding love online.

Instead, she said it asks whether stronger safeguards could reduce opportunities for serious offenders to use dating platforms to access potential new victims.

Ms Richardson said she is proud that the campaign began in the Forest of Dean and hopes it will encourage Parliament, dating companies, victim support organisations and technology experts to work together to improve online dating safety.

The petition, "Require Dating Apps to Verify Users and Prevent Abuse", is available on the UK Parliament website.