You may enjoy the ease and accessibility of online dating sites. But a major HIV prevention organization is warning people about the risks when internet dating leads to casual hook-ups.
A billboard in Los Angeles created by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is warning viewers about the increased risks of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) to people who use online dating apps, including calling out the internet dating app Tinder and Grindr specifically.
The billboards equate the names of the companies with the sexually acquired diseases chlamydia and gonorrhea, according to Newsweek.
In a cease-and-desist letter to the Foundation, Tinder’s attorney called the links between disease and the company’s services “unprovoked and unsubstantiated.”
But the foundation says it will not take down the ads. A report from the Rhode Island Department of Health, they say, shows an increase in the rate of STDs in the state between 2013 and 2014, equating the rise to the use of social media that encourages casual sex and sex with multiple partners.
The foundation also says that a study of gay men’s dating habits by the U.S. National Library of Medicine found that those who use dating apps were more likely to have chlamydia or gonorrhea.
In response, Grindr has dropped the Foundation’s paid ads for STD testing from its site.