Tinder to the Rescue with Their New STD Testing Feature

Tinder has recently come under fire from billboards plastered around the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. The LA-based advocacy group, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, used Tinder’s logo on billboards that focus on the dangers of using hookup apps in the modern age. The campaign included a few controversial billboards where silhouettes of people with labels “chlamydia” and “gonorrhea” share intimate poses with other figures labeled “Grindr” and “Tinder.”

guess #tinder‘s legal team swiped left: sent a C&D over a billboard near its HQ that targeted users for #std checks pic.twitter.com/USAygmpnpD

— Brian Focarino (@bjfocarino) September 29, 2015

Tinder’s attorney Jonathan Reichman issued a cease and desist to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, calling these ads “unprovoked” and “unsubstantiated.” The question at hand: should Tinder be held responsible for the health and safety of its users? We all know the popular app is mainly used for hookups and sexual safety is incredibly important.

Don’t get me wrong— I like what they’re doing. We should all be concerned about our health and advocate safe sex. But at what point does that personal responsibility get put on an app developer? Would these users demonstrate the same caution for health and safety if they weren’t using the app? You can make the argument that the use of Tinder creates more opportunities for hookups, but if I learned anything in middle school sex ed, it’s that I’m responsible for my own sexual health.

As an effort to save their asses and calm the backlash from those STD billboards, Tinder partnered with Healthvana to help users find testing centers within their area based on their zip code.

But hold your horses.

 
Sounds great, right? Wow, Tinder is doing something great for the community. Sure, but are they really? The majority of users only open the app to swipe left or right, add some shirtless mirror selfies, and add a pizza emoji to their bio. No one really visits Tinder’s actual website unless applying for a job or doing research (me).

So where is this amazing STD testing feature? Buried.

If you have the app open in front of you, tap the settings icon in the top left. From there, press the “Help & Support” option which will then take you to Tinder’s website. One of the first topics you’ll see in the FAQ is “Safety.” A link is provided for “Health Safety” which directs you to a new page discussing how to be sexually safe.

For the people browsing the website already, you’ll see a greyed out “Health Safety” option at the very bottom next to their contact, privacy, terms, & safety options. You can click on this to take you to the same page mentioned above.

Once you find yourself on this page of healthy safety tips , you can read about how it’s important to protect yourself and vaccinate (shout out to the crazy moms). This information is the same talk your parents awkwardly tried to give you when you hit puberty—talk to each other, be open and honest, wear a condom & get tested.

One helpful tool they have implemented is the partnership with Healthvana as mentioned earlier. Provided with a link on the page, you get redirected to Healthvana’s website where you can enter your zip code and find free testing centers around you.

Okay, so it’s not all bad. At least they’re trying.

How much of this effort is them actually caring and how much of this is them really just trying to cover their ass and protect their brand after a smear campaign? In order for this to be helpful, users have to both hear of it and actually follow through using it. Chances are if someone didn’t already plan on getting tested, this “feature” isn’t going to get them off their air mattress anytime soon.

For this to be something innovative and helpful, it needs to be more apparent and upfront within the app itself. Even if it has it’s own section with settings. Right now a user has to dig for it and face it, are you really going to be digging through the settings of a hookup app?

It’s a good start, but it seems like a ploy to stop the feud. One thing they have going for them is they are the first app to implement anything at all. Once they take it a step further I’ll give them props. Until then, I hope people learned enough from sex ed. Stay tested, my friends.

Featured image credit: Hero Phone by JD Hancock (CC BY 2.0)

Photo 1 credit: Business man holding a cell phone by kev-shine (CC BY 2.0) 

Phot 2 credit: Digging a hole by Adam Bindslev (CC BY-NC 2.0)