A new report from the Australian Institute of Criminology found that three-quarters of people using dating apps experienced some form of online sexual violence.

Almost half of those who experienced in-person sexual violence from someone they connected with on a dating app reported their perpetrator subsequently unmatched or blocked them, or deleted their account and this removed evidence of their conversations with the victim-survivor.

Dating app companies, including Bumble, Grindr and Match, were presented with the findings, based on nearly 10,000 respondents who used dating apps over the last five years, and encouraged to implement mechanisms to better protect their users.

Sexual harassment was the most common reported behaviour (69 per cent), while unsolicited sexual images and repeated contact were also common. Around half (47 per cent) reported telling someone they weren't interested, only to be contacted again, and four in 10 reported being sent sexual pictures when they did not ask for them.

Online distribution of sexual images of a person without their consent was experienced by one in five dating app users. One in seven reported that someone had threatened to share a sexually explicit image or video of them without their consent. While 45 per cent reported experiencing abusive and threatening language and one in four reported being stalked online.

In-person sexual violence after meeting up with someone they connected with through a dating app was also reported by one in three. Some form of sexual assault or coercion was reported by 27 per cent, including being pressured verbally into perform unwanted sexual acts (22 per cent) and having their drink spiked (10 per cent).

LGBTIQ men and women experienced sexual violence facilitated by dating apps more frequently (36 per cent and 42 per cent respectively) than heterosexual men and women (21 per cent and 28 per cent).

AIC deputy director Dr Rick Brown said the institute discussed the findings with dating app industry representatives in Canberra recently.

"While it was encouraging to hear about what dating app companies are doing to embed safety into their products, the high levels of online and in-person [sexual violence] in this report demonstrate the need to embed Safety by Design principles in their development processes," he said.

Research into the prevalence and nature of technology-facilitated sexual violence had not kept pace with the exponential growth in the use of dating apps, Dr Brown noted. He hoped the institute's report would help with the development of policies and practices to prevent that kind of violence from occurring.

Unmatching and blocking users, features intended to protect individuals from being contacted by problematic users, were also being used to mask perpetrators from responsibility. The features "remove evidence of violence and abuse, specifically conversation histories that can support reports of [dating app facilitated sexual violence] to the platform or law enforcement," the report authors noted.

"Alternatively, perpetrators can also delete their own account on the dating app or website to remove evidence of their conversations with victim-survivors."

READ MORE:

The report identified safety features likely to have a positive impact, including accessible and easy-to-use processes for reporting, banning perpetrators from creating new accounts through multi-level identity verification, and use of artificial intelligence to censor explicit images.

"However, there is also a need to monitor the impact of safety strategies on [dating app facilitated sexual violence] victimisation among users, due to the potential to be bypassed or even exploited by perpetrators," the report authors wrote.