LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – With LGBT+ communities warned off casual sex during the coronavirus pandemic, the latest dating site figures show people are sending more messages online to meet new people, flirt – and swap explicit images.
British HIV/AIDS charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) issued a statement on Friday saying the country’s current lockdown and advice to keep two metres from anyone “has to include not hooking up for sex”.
“I have never been an advocate of promoting abstinence … but these are extraordinary and unprecedented times,” Dr Michael Brady, medical director at THT, said in a statement.
As coronavirus spreads globally, LGBT+ groups are cancelling and delaying a slew of events, from a Tunisia film festival to Pride in London attended by 1.5 million people last year.
Many LGBT+ dating sites, including gay social network Hornet, have recently added advisory notes on how to avoid contracting the virus which has infected 550,000 people and caused almost 25,000 deaths worldwide.
Craig Chapple, mobile insights strategist, EMEA at analytics firm Sensor Tower, expected coronavirus to impact dating apps both positively and negatively regarding new users and the amount people used the sites.
Sensor Tower data found in Spain and Italy – Europe’s worst hit countries in terms of coronavirus – downloads for the week of March 16 and the previous week fell by 19% and 8% respectively for Grindr, the world’s best known gay dating app.
By comparison, downloads of gay app Scruff saw a drop of 7% and 10% week-on-week for Spain and Italy, and Tinder – used by both straight and LGBT+ people with nearly 6 million subscribers – was up 1% and down 10% respectively.
PHOTOS AND FLIRTING
“On the one hand, people may be keen to connect with others during what can be a lonely time in lockdown, but on the other, some people may be discouraged from turning to dating apps at a time when meeting up in person is impossible,” Chapple said.
David Adams