Selling visibility-boosts on dating apps

A problematic practice

Bibliographic Data

ID21703336
AuthorsBouke De Vries (0000-0002-7797-0166, University of Zurich, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume25
Issue2
Pages30-30
Publication date2023-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthics and Information Technology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1388-1957 • E-ISSN: 1572-8439
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10676-023-09704-y
PMID37220546
OpenAlexW4377108002
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited30

Love, sex, and physical intimacy are some of the most desired goods in life and they are increasingly being sought on dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble, and Badoo. For those who want a leg up in the chase for other people’s attention, almost all of these apps now offer the option of paying a fee to boost one’s visibility for a certain amount of time, which may range from 30 min to a few hours. In this article, I argue that there are strong moral grounds and, in countries with laws against unconscionable contracts, legal ones for thinking that the sale of such visibility boosts should be regulated, if not banned altogether. To do so, I raise two objections against their unfettered sale, namely that it exploits the impaired autonomy of certain users and that it creates socio-economic injustices

Autonomy · Business · Computer security · Exploit · Internet privacy · Law and economics · Political science · Sociology · Unconscionability · Visibility · Computer Science · Gambling Behavior and Treatments · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

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Open DOIOpen Access