Conférence-débat | From swipes to safety: Understanding safety and navigating violence on Canadian dating apps

CONFÉRENCE-DÉBAT
Vendredi 18 octobre

Horaire : 10h00 à 12h00
En présentiel (UQAM) et en ligne. Présentation bilingue.

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From swipes to safety: Understanding safety and navigating violence on Canadian dating apps

Stefanie Duguay et Christopher Dietzel

Summary : Dating apps are often criticized for promoting casual sex, though the real problem lies in the violence and threats to safety that users confront online and in person, such as discrimination, harassment, sexual violence, and privacy issues. Apps have offered technological solutions to these myriad harms, but their safety measures often involve censorship, surveillance, and the individualization of responsibility, which can especially marginalize and harm women, LGBTQ+ people, and BIPOC communities. In the first part of their presentation, Dr. Duguay and Dr. Dietzel present preliminary findings from their analysis of 30 dating apps’ policy documents, community guidelines, and safety materials to examine how “safety” has been constructed and addressed in Canada’s top dating apps. In doing so, they critically consider how apps’ safety measures work and who they actually protect. In the second part, Dr. Dietzel will showcase key findings from a national survey of LGBTQ+ dating app users, which shed light on their experiences of different forms of violence. Overall, this presentation examines the role of dating apps’ policies, features, and affordances in relation to issues of safety and violence.

Intervenant.es : Stefanie Duguay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada. She is a Concordia University Research Chair and Director of the Digital Intimacy, Gender and Sexuality (DIGS) Lab where her research focuses on the intersection of digital technologies and media with representations and practices pertaining to intimate life, relationships, gender, and sexual identity. For more info see digslab.net

Christopher Dietzel, Ph.D. (he/him) is a postdoctoral fellow whose work explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, health, safety, and technology. Dr. Dietzel works with the Digital Intimacy, Gender, and Sexualities (DIGS) Lab, the Sexual Health and Gender (SHaG) Lab, and the iMPACTS Project, and he is a co-investigator on Digitally Informed Youth (DIY): Digital Safety. Dr. Dietzel’s recent projects focus on LGBTQ+ people’s experiences with dating apps and social media, and he investigates the barriers, harms, and violence that people face when using these digital platforms.

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 17 septembre 2024 à 15 h 49 min.