A new dating app will allow users to send an SOS alert if they feel unsafe amid a rise in ‘romance predators’.
Police reports of sex offences linked to dating apps soared 175 per cent between 2017 and 2021, leading many single people to question the safety of looking for love online.
Now Bonkers, a new app due to launch next month, will allow daters to plan a safe journey using street crime data, share their location and even send an SOS message to loved ones if they are in immediate danger.
The risk women face when going out alone – often to meet dates – has been made tragically apparent in recent years. In January last year, a trainee paramedic was jailed for life at Teesside Crown Court for raping five women he met on Tinder.
Tom Rodwell, 31, admitted ten offences of rape against his victims over a three-year period.
Bonkers, a new app due to launch next month, will allow daters to plan a safe journey using street crime data, share their location and even send an SOS message to loved ones if they are in immediate danger
Tom Rodwell, 31, left, admitted ten offences of rape against his victims over a three-year period. Prince Darkwa, 26, right,from Camberley, Surrey, was jailed for 12 years for raping two women he met on Tinder
And last July, Prince Darkwa, 26, from Camberley, Surrey, was jailed for 12 years for raping two women he met on Tinder.
Jay Dodds, co-founder of Bonkers, said he felt compelled to act after seeing ‘so many people becoming victims’ when trying to find love online.
He said 68 per cent of users who have signed up ahead of the launch are women – on other apps, around 70 per cent are men.
‘We are seeing in our sign-ups that what we have done is working,’ he added.
He described being motivated to bring about change after witnessing friends falling foul of predators on dating apps.
‘I have friends who have become victims of catfishing – where they have been speaking to someone who hasn’t been the person they thought – and it is quite scary,’ he said.
‘It doesn’t feel fun anymore. I think that’s the problem.’
There are other measures built into the app to stop it being abused for sinister purposes, such as blocking users from screenshotting another user’s photos – which is how many bogus profiles are created – and protecting all conversations with a password.
The app will use technology developed by WalkSafe, a personal safety company created by mother-of-two Emma Kay. Pictured left to right: WalkSafe CEO Michael Neilgan, Emma Kay, Bonkers CEO John Davidson and Jay Dodds
‘With other dating apps, it sort of feels like it is profits before values,’ Mr Dodds added.
Users can create a circle of ‘protectors’ and an SOS button can be pushed to alert them if something goes wrong. The nominated loved ones will then be able to see their live location on a map and work out how to help.
The app will use technology developed by WalkSafe, a personal safety company created by mother-of-two Emma Kay.
She said: ‘Going about our daily lives should not be such an issue, but it is. I would love for us not to be needed.’
Ms Kay said she started developing personal safety technology for smartphones when she had her first daughter, as she did not want her to endure the same sexual harassment she did when she grows up.
She said: ‘I’ve been on dates where I’ve been touched up, where people have been absolutely disgusting and it does turn you off dating apps, they’re not safe. Having Bonkers using our technology, for me, is a real kind of step forward in the right direction.
‘I would love to be in a position where in X amount of years’ time I’m not needed, that the WalkSafe app can be shut down and everyone can roam the streets free from harm.
‘Going about our daily lives should not be such an issue, but it is. I would love for us not to be needed.’
Bonkers will launch in May.
DailyMail
