What are the dangers of Tinder and how can it be used safely?

The murder trial of Gable Tostee received media attention around the world, with many stories focussing on the fact that he and Warriena Wright met on Tinder before she fell to her death from his apartment balcony on the Gold Coast in 2014. But cyber safety expert Susan McLean says there are real differences between using dating apps and meeting people at bars or clubs. Ms McLean says one difference is that you can't read someone's body language on Tinder and get an instinctual sense of who they are: If someone was dodgy at a nightclub, you could easily walk away, but you've got to get further down the path when you've only ever engaged with them online," she said. Ms McLean says people need to be aware of the real dangers: There's certainly been plenty of cases of people that have been abused and assaulted after meeting on these sorts of apps," she said. Dr Rosewarne says the same care needs to be taken on dating apps as in the offline world, and that there's no need to be "exceedingly paranoid": In exactly the same way that precautions should be taken when handing out a phone number to a man met at the laundromat or in the library, we shouldn't be any more cavalier with using Tinder.