Safer Internet Day 2025: Inspiring Daters to Connect with Confidence

by Jeff Dunn, VP, Trust & Safety

As a platform built to create a less lonely world through intimate connections, Hinge prioritizes the safety of our users throughout their dating experience. This Safer Internet Day, we want to reaffirm our commitment to fostering a community rooted in kindness and good intentions – by working to ensure that our app is a place where daters can feel safer and more confident in their pursuit of connection.

With a mission that centers on personal relationships, we feel a deep responsibility to set standards of safety and accountability. The goal of these principles is to uphold an inclusive, positive environment and encourage daters to contribute by being kind, respectful, and well-intentioned in their interactions on the platform.

Proactive Tools for a Safer Experience

Trust and safety are at the core of Hinge because we understand that feeling safe is an integral part of showing up as your most authentic self. We strive to equip daters with the tools they need to feel empowered on their unique journey - and to do so in a way that helps them try to avoid negative experiences so they can focus on finding great matches and getting out on great dates.

• Selfie Verification: Taking the time to verify a profile is one of the first ways for users to start building trust with potential matches by showing your live image matches your profile pictures. And it makes a difference: 76% of users surveyed report that verified badges on profiles are helpful in deciding who to match with.
  
• Block List: It’s important to us that daters have the ability to make decisions about who they want to encounter while dating. 87% of all Hinge users find it helpful to be able to block a contact, which is why we allow them to choose who they’d rather not run into and add them to their Block List.
  
• Are You Sure?: By encouraging daters to be respectful and intentional with their words, our goal is to help maintain a dating community that feels safer for all. This feature asks users to pause and reassess before sending any message that may not land right, or even be harmful. We found that 22% of those tested who encountered Are You Sure? edited their message before sending.

Listening to Our Users

Hinge is committed to learning more from daters by asking them directly about their experiences. Hearing from our community firsthand helps us refine our approach to designing the tools and features that can help to meet their needs. Our research arm, Hinge Labs, is a team of Ph.D. researchers and behavioral experts that study the complex and personal nuances of dating, and then uses those insights to help us build the most effective version of Hinge.

Moving Forward, Together

Safer Internet Day is an important reminder that creating safe and empowered communities requires a framework of consistent collaboration and strong values to support them. Together, we can continue fostering a culture of respect, kindness, mutual responsibility and empowerment as we work to create a less lonely world.