Worst Dating Apps for Assault: How Tinder, Hinge, & Other Apps Failed to Protect Users

Dating apps were supposed to be a safer, easier way to meet people online. Marketing presented the platforms as convenient alternatives to the risks of singles bars or personal ads. However, critics say some platforms made it far too easy for predators and other bad actors to find victims.

Now, dating app lawsuits against Match Group (which owns Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, and Plenty of Fish) as well as Bumble Inc. are seeking compensation. Victims accuse the companies of prioritizing market share and user engagement over safety.

According to critics, the dating app companies knew dangerous users were active on their platforms and failed to do enough to stop them. It seems that keeping users busy swiping was more important than keeping them safe.

Lawsuits Against Dating Apps Over Sexual Assault Risks

A Pew Research study found that, although 1in 3 U.S. adults have tried dating apps, nearly half of those surveyed did not consider the platforms a safe way to meet people.

Lawsuits against dating apps present evidence to back up those concerns. Victims say that certain platforms repeatedly failed to protect users from sexual assault and other crimes.

Common issues raised in dating app lawsuits include:

• Delayed responses to assault reports
• Inadequate user safety protections
• Poor moderation systems
• Predators allegedly remaining active after complaints
• Repeat offenders returning after bans
• Weak or inconsistent identity verification and background checks

These problems contributed to environments where dangerous individuals could target victims, sometimes repeatedly. The best and worst dating apps alike have a responsibility not to put their users in harm’s way and to take reports of unacceptable behavior seriously.

There’s plenty of evidence that certain dating apps fell way short of their obligations. The lawsuits suggest that the dating app platforms are yet another example of companies that prioritized app growth over user protection.

The 6 Worst Dating Apps for Assault in the U.S.

Just putting yourself out there and finding people to connect with can be scary enough. But critics say that dating apps repeatedly failed to protect users from sexual predators and dangerous behavior reported on their own platforms.

Dating app lawsuits are not about one isolated incident or one bad date. Investigations point to larger patterns involving weak safety systems and repeated failures to remove dangerous users.

Columbia Journalism Investigations (CJI) reviewed 150 incidents of sexual assault where dating apps played a role. In 15 of those cases, the app had matched the user with a person who had already been accused or even convicted of sexual assault.

What are the worst dating apps for assault? Each of these apps has faced safety complaints:

1. Tinder: Accused in multiple lawsuits involving sexual assault allegations, repeat offenders, and weak moderation systems
2. Hinge: Named in lawsuits alleging dangerous users remained active despite prior reports from women
3. Plenty of Fish: Criticized over moderation concerns and reports of predatory behavior
4. OkCupid: Facing scrutiny tied to a variety of user safety complaints
5. Grindr: Sued over moderation, location-sharing concerns, and user protection issues
6. Bumble: Marketed as a safer alternative, but still subject to broader dating app safety concerns

“There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products,” a Match Group spokesperson admitted to CJI.

Below are some of the dating apps most frequently connected to lawsuits, safety concerns, and allegations involving sexual assault and violence.

1. Tinder: Making It Too Easy for Predators to Keep Coming Back

Since Tinder’s 2012 launch, the app has helped turn online dating into a speed-run of profile photos, pickup lines, and split-second decisions. In 2025, Tinder had 60 million users and nearly 9 million paid subscribers, according to company data.

However, critics say the app made it far too easy for dangerous users or sex offenders to keep creating new accounts after bans or complaints. Lawsuits claim that perpetrators were allowed to return to the app despite reports involving sexual assault, abusive behavior, or sexual violence.

Some of the worst examples of crimes committed after a Tinder match:

• A Nebraska man was convicted of murdering and dismembering a woman he met through Tinder in 2017.
• A Connecticut man, who was already awaiting trial for allegedly strangling another woman, matched with a New York nurse in 2019. He was charged with murder, sexual misconduct, and grand larceny after the nurse was found dead in her apartment.
• In a 2025 attack, a Washington man was accused of strangling and raping a woman who used a wheelchair due to spina bifida after contacting her on Tinder. In a separate case, another woman said the man had abused and raped her.
• After a 2025 incident, a man from The Villages in Florida was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery for allegedly attacking a woman he had matched with and the friends who came to assist her.

Is Tinder the worst dating app for assault? It makes the list because of years spent perfecting the art of keeping users swiping while ignoring mounting concerns.

Because Tinder is owned by dating app giant Match Group, the individual lawsuits often raise bigger questions about how the company handled safety across multiple dating platforms.

2. Hinge: Failing to Delete Dangerous Users

Hinge built its brand around being the dating app “designed to be deleted.” With 30 million users and almost 2 million paid subscribers according to company data, the platform is marketed as fostering deep connections and lasting relationships.

Yet this dating app makes the worst list because it failed to delete users who were actually reported for dangerous behavior.

A few instances of Hinge allowing violent users to find victims:

• A lawsuit alleged that Hinge did not act on reports about a Denver cardiologist who was later convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting women he found on dating apps. Despite assurances from Hinge that he would be kept off the platform, he managed to continue seeking victims through that app as well as Tinder.
• A North Carolina man was charged with kidnapping and raping a woman he matched with on Hinge. In the past, he had pleaded guilty to charges of domestic violence, assault, and stalking.
• A man from Delray Beach, Florida was arrested for felony sexual battery after allegedly drugging and raping a woman he met through Hinge in 2026. Investigators believed that the same man may have previously assaulted other women.

So, is Hinge the worst dating app for assault? Critics argue that the company’s oversights raise serious (and uncomfortable) questions about what dating app companies knew, when they knew it, and why reported users allegedly stayed active anyway.

3. Plenty of Fish: The App With Problems Beyond Dating

A Canadian brand founded in 2003, Plenty of Fish became one of the biggest online dating platforms in several countries by making it simple for users to jump into conversations quickly.

Critics say the platform may also have made matching up too easy for predators. Bad actors and repeat offenders keep showing up on the app.

Acquired by Match Group in 2015, the platform has faced lawsuits, investigations, and growing criticism tied to moderation concerns and reports involving sexual assault and abusive behavior.

How this app enabled terrifying assaults:

• A UK man pled guilty in 2018 to raping 3 women he matched with through Plenty of Fish over a period of years. He’d previously been accused of sending explicit images to a 13 year-old-girl.
• In 2019, a man in Regina, Saskatchewan was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman he met on the platform.
• A New Jersey man was arrested in 2019 for allegedly raping and robbing a woman he matched with on Plenty of Fish. Police suspected the same man in other assaults and caught him by posing as a potential victim on the site.
• In 2019, a man was convicted in Texas of allegedly sexually assaulting and raping a woman he met through Plenty of Fish. Two other women testified that he had similarly attacked them.

Plenty of Fish is one of the worst dating apps because, like other Match Group-owned platforms, it had weak identity verification, inconsistent moderation, and dangerous users returning after bans.

Some of those fish in the sea are sharks, and victims say the company didn’t do enough to check what was happening under the waves.

4. OkCupid: Another Match Group App Facing Safety Complaints

OkCupid launched in 2004 and was purchased by Match Group in 2011. The site attracted millions of active users with its free membership and data-driven approach to matching potential romantic interests and friends.

As swiping-based apps took over online dating, the platform marketed itself as the smarter, more personality-driven alternative. Nonetheless, many of the same safety problems plague OKCupid.

Investigations tied to OkCupid repeatedly raised concerns, including:

• In 2015, three men in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania admitted to separately sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl they met on OkCupid.
• A man in Atlanta was charged with rape and aggravated sodomy after allegedly attacking and possibly drugging a woman he met on OkCupid in 2015.
• In 2016, a Connecticut woman on a date arranged through OkCupid had a bag placed over her head and was sexually assaulted by 2 men in a car.
• In 2024, a NASA engineer was accused of assaulting 6 women he met through various dating sites, including OkCupid.

Even though the site was involved in a number of assault cases, there’s evidence that leaders at the company did not take their responsibility to protect users seriously.

Staff members at OkCupid said that managers closed safety cases without taking action and ignored requests for help from law enforcement for weeks, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Safety professionals accused the company of putting their users at risk.

It seems that decision-makers at OkCupid just didn’t want to be bothered with problems like sexual assault and human trafficking.

5. Grindr: Dating App Lawsuits Raise Questions About User Protection

Grindr’s 2009 debut revolutionized online dating for gay and bisexual men by making it easy to connect with other users who were physically nearby. However, the app also spawned a great deal of controversy, including lawsuits and criticism over moderation and user safety.

This app makes the worst dating app list because claims against it involve underage users, location-sharing features, and allegations that dangerous accounts stayed active too long.

Some of the worst incidents involving Grindr:

• In November 2016, the English serial killer Stephen Port was convicted of drugging, murdering, and sexually assaulting 4 men he contacted through Grindr.
• A man in Oregon set up a date on Grindr in July 2021, allegedly in order to commit a hate crime by brutally assaulting and attempting to murder the other person.
• In January 2026, police arrested a Utah man accused of sexually exploiting a teenager he allegedly met through the app years earlier.
• A 54-year-old man from Oregon was sentenced to 8 years in prison for using the app to arrange the December 2023 sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in California.

Critics argue that dating apps like Grindr rely too heavily on users reporting problems after harm already occurred instead of building stronger protections upfront.

6. Bumble: The “Women Message First” App That Still Could Not Eliminate Safety Risks

Bumble Inc. built its brand around giving women more control over online dating conversations. The founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, said she was motivated by her own experience of harassment while working at Tinder to start the company in December 2014.

While the app’s success made Wolfe Herd a billionaire, letting women send the first message did not solve the larger safety problems affecting dating apps.

Is Bumble the worst dating app? Like other platforms, Bumble has faced criticism tied to moderation concerns, user reporting systems, and questions about how dating app companies respond to dangerous behavior.

Dangerous incidents involving Bumble include:

• In January 2023, a Texas man was accused of kidnapping, beating, torturing, and starving a woman he had met on Bumble for 5 days before she escaped.
• A Connecticut man has been accused of assaulting multiple women he connected with on Bumble, and a woman was found dead in his home in March 2026.
• In August 2026, a man was charged in Salt Lake City with forcible sexual abuse, forcible sodomy, object rape, and aggravated kidnapping after allegedly assaulting a woman he met on Bumble.

Bumble’s safety tools, profile verification features, and trauma support only go so far if predators and bad actors have been able to return to platforms or continue targeting users.

And while “women message first” may sound empowering in marketing campaigns, survivors expected stronger protections once conversations moved offline.

Dating App Lawsuit Update 2025-2026: Why More Survivors Are Filing Claims

Dating app lawsuits continue expanding as survivors, prosecutors, and lawmakers raise more questions about how platforms handle user safety and other problems.

Recent dating apps lawsuits and settlements include:

• December 2024: Dating app addiction lawsuits accused Match Group of designing apps to hook users, putting their own profits ahead of making successful connections. A federal judge sent the cases to individual arbitration instead of allowing a dating app class action lawsuit.
• August 2025: Match Group settled with the Federal Trade Commission, agreeing to pay $14 million for deceptive marketing and making it hard to cancel Match.com subscriptions.
• December 2025: A suit against Match Group claims 6 women were matched on Hinge and Tinder with a Denver doctor who was later convicted of assaulting multiple women he met online. The victims say the company received reports about the man but failed to permanently remove him from the platforms.
• February 2026: A class action lawsuit was filed against Bumble in Texas, accusing the company of allowing a data breach to occur with avoidable security failures. The compromised information included users’ names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, account numbers, chat history, and dating history.
• April 2026: A dating app class action lawsuit accused Tinder of charging higher subscription rates for users over the age of 29 in violation of California law. The company agreed to pay a $60.5 million settlement.

The growing number of lawsuits keeps raising the same uncomfortable question: how many warnings about harm to users did these companies allegedly ignore?

Why Dating Apps Are the Worst: Persistent Safety Problems

Sexual assault cases that involve dating apps tend to fall into disturbing patterns, such as targeting victims with self-reported mental illness. Compared to other assaults, these situations are likely to involve greater violence, especially strangulation, a study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found.

“Our findings indicate that violent sexual predators use dating apps as hunting grounds for vulnerable victims,” said Julie Valentine, a professor of nursing and co-author of the study. “In dating apps, the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing is easy to accomplish.”

Most major dating apps are taking steps to disrupt those patterns. They now publicly discuss safety tools, moderation systems, and reporting features.

For example, in March 2026, Tinder announced AI features that both double-check with a user before sending a potentially harmful message and blur any concerning language on the receiver’s end.

The issue? Many of those changes happened only after public pressure intensified.

Lawsuits point to long-standing problems and oversights that range from limited background checks and identify verification practices to failures in communicating with victims and following up on reports.

Critics say many dating app users assumed stronger protections existed before meeting strangers in-person through these platforms.

That gap between expectation and reality now sits at the center of many lawsuits.

Filing a Dating App Sexual Assault Lawsuit: What Survivors May Need to Show

Dating app sexual assault lawsuits often focus on whether platforms failed to respond appropriately to known safety concerns.

Survivors may need evidence such as:

• Communications through dating apps and social media
• Evidence of prior complaints against perpetrators
• Medical records
• Police reports
• Reports submitted to platforms
• Therapy records

“Every time a survivor comes forward about their experience, it reinforces the idea that putting profits over safety has real consequences, and it pushes these companies to take responsibility and improve their practices.”
– An Truong, Sexual Abuse Lawyer

A sexual abuse attorney may also investigate whether a dating app company had notice of dangerous behavior before an assault allegedly occurred. If you’ve experienced sexual assault when using a dating app, check your case.

Dating App Sexual Assault Lawyers: More Survivors Are Demanding Accountability

Many survivors say pursuing legal action is not only about compensation. It is also about preventing similar harm from happening to someone else.

A dating app attorney can help survivors:

• Understand legal options
• Gather evidence
• Review reporting history
• Investigate platform safety failures
• Navigate filing deadlines and court proceedings

As the number of pending lawsuits continue to grow, survivors are demanding accountability from dating app companies critics say failed to prioritize user safety.

Get Help If You Were Harmed by Someone You Met on a Dating App

Many survivors say they trusted dating apps to provide reasonable safety protections while meeting people online.

If you were sexually assaulted or abused by someone you met through Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Plenty of Fish, OkCupid, or another dating platform, you may have legal options worth exploring.

Get a free case review to learn whether you can fight back by filing a dating app sexual assault lawsuit.

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