Computer-Mediated Consent to Sex: The Context of Tinder
Abstract
This paper reports an interview study about how consent to sexual activity is computer-mediated. The study's context of online dating is chosen due to the prevalence of sexual violence, or nonconsensual sexual activity, that is associated with dating app-use. Participants (n=19) represent a range of gender identities and sexual orientations, and predominantly used the dating app Tinder. Findings reveal two computer-mediated consent processes: consent signaling and affirmative consent. With consent signaling, users employed Tinder's interface to infer and imply agreement to sex without any explicit confirmation before making sexual advances in-person. With affirmative consent, users employed the interface to establish patterns of overt discourse around sex and consent across online and offline modalities. The paper elucidates shortcomings of both computer-mediated consent processes that leave users susceptible to sexual violence and envisions dating apps as potential sexual violence prevention solutions if deliberately designed to mediate consent exchange.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2105.07333,
title = {Computer-Mediated Consent to Sex: The Context of Tinder},
author = {Douglas Zytko and Nicholas Furlo and Bailey Carlin and Matthew Archer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.07333},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Pre-print. To appear in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 5, CSCW1