SALT LAKE CITY — A bill going through the Utah State Legislature aims to keep people safe on dating apps.
House Bill 18 passed in the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee Friday afternoon.
READ: Latest on the legislature: Real-time updates on 2023 Utah State Legislature
“Just wanting to remind people when they’re using dating apps to make sure they take those safety steps,” explained the bill’s sponsor in the house, Rep. Angela Romero. “It’s been an issue here in Utah and across the country — we’ve seen the rise of sexual assault.”
FOX 13 News spoke with students at the University of Utah about how safe they feel on dating apps.
“Considering I don’t meet up with anyone, pretty safe,” said Helena Proser, a senior at the U.
“I think it’s one of the main concerns,” Alaina Schwartz said about safety when meeting people online. “I got off dating apps just because it kind of was scary talking to strangers and I didn’t really like doing that.”
The bill would make it so that dating apps would have to disclose whether they have done background checks on users, and would also send emails to all users if there was an account being suspected of catfishing.
“It kind of gives that feeling of consent,” explained Nicholeen Peck, the president of the Worldwide Organization for Women. She was also in committee, expressing her support for the bill. “They don’t realize that, 'OK, maybe there are some dangers in there.'”
One of the stipulations of the bill is that apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and others would have to advise people of ways to prevent sexual assault and violence, and give them resources to report wrongdoings.
“Not to make someone feel like they did something wrong, but... 'Here are the precautions, but if something does happen, here are the steps you can take,' so it's not buried somewhere on the app, but front and center where someone can find that,” explained Rep. Romero.
Romero added that this legislation has been in the works for years, but the timing was off.
“It took us a while to get to a place where everyone agreed on the language, and then from there, it just stuck on the third read calendar in the Senate and there were a lot of other issues, so it just didn’t meet the deadline,” she said.
Proser says she doesn’t know how helpful these measures might be.
“I don’t know if that would change how safe I feel. I think people still do bad things, even if they’ve had a background check, so yeah, I don’t know if that would change anything," she said.
Schwartz added that it’s important to always be cautious and keep yourself safe.
“If you do go on a date with somebody, I would make sure you have like a buddy or somebody who knows that you’re going on a date,” she said.
The bill now heads to the House floor. If passed there, it will go to the Senate.
