Bengaluru Guy Arrested For One Night Stand On Tinder, Exposing Flaws In Online Dating Culture

When Tinder launched, it marketed itself as a way to meet new people and form relationships. While that's still technically true, most just use it for booty calls now.

Unfortunately, it seems the people taking the 'dating' part of the dating app seriously didn't get the memo.

According to a report in Bangalore Mirror, a techie in Bengaluru name Meera (whose name has been changed) has filed an FIR against a male counterpart in a different software company.

Meera met 29-year-old Rama on Tinder a while ago, and the two hit it off. They reportedly dated for a month, before they finally got into bed together. The thing is, as soon as he got into her pants, Rama was ready to be done with the "relationship". Too bad for him, Meera wanted more.

The next day after having sex, Meera told Rama she wanted to get married. His response was that he wasn't looking for a long-term commitment, and wanted to instead break up. It's unclear whether there was a misunderstanding between what the two of them wanted, or even if they discussed commitments when they started out dating. Or perhaps Rama was indeed just doing and saying whatever was required to get some.

Either way, Meera wasn't too happy about the situation. She reportedly felt that she'd been coerced into sexual intimacy with the guy, expecting things to go somewhere further. She continued to pursue Rama over the following week, calling him again and asking him to change his mind. Rama decided enough was enough and told her not to contact him again, even blocking her on WhatsApp.

Ticked off, Meera filed a police complaint on June 3, accusing Rama of taking advantage of her. He's since been taken into custody as an investigation is underway.

Online dating apps in the 21st century

The point is that, all too often, dating apps are indeed used to take advantage of women. This might actually be one of the milder cases. The thing is, it's very easy to fake a Tinder profile. Using a Facebook profile for verification isn't exactly the most secure thing in the world of course. But all that's possible to do while still respecting a user's privacy.

A better solution instead would be for Tinder's moderators to pay more attention to reports. The app currently has a pretty bad track record of serial abusers and rapists still active on its platform. In fact, there have even been incidents of women calling out these sort of villains, only to be banned themselves.

So the point here is, don't expect to find a lot of people on Tinder looking for serious relationships. If you're fine with something casual, that's great. But more importantly, DO NOT expect the app to have a way to keep you safe. Though it should, it doesn't and likely won't anytime soon. You're forced to be on the lookout for your own safety, and that's the bare truth.

So make sure you Facebook stalk a match before you chat with them too much. The first time you meet them, only agree to a public place with lots of people around. And for the love of god, try not to let them know your address.

Heartbreaking as it is, we have to end an article that started out as a denouncement of how unsafe dating apps are for women, with instead safety tips. That's because these apps have absolutely no incentive to help keep you safe, like they should. Not yet anyway.