Sex traffickers are using popular dating apps to mine for victims and Congress is pushing companies to increase security measures to protect users.

The FBI has warned that human traffickers are using platforms to recruit victims to engage in forced labor or sex work.

“Offenders often exploit dating apps and websites to recruit — and later advertise — sex trafficking victims,” the FBI reported.

Outside groups are urging Congress to force dating apps to implement new security measures, such as screening out sex offenders from using the apps.

“Congress should do everything within its power to ensure that American companies’ products, platforms, and services do not facilitate in any way the trafficking of human beings,” former Sen. Rick Santorum, founder of the conservative group Patriot Voices, wrote to a group of House lawmakers on the Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence.

One of the letter’s recipients, Rep. Annie Kuster, New Hampshire Democrat, blames a U.S. law, section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act. The law shields social media platforms from lawsuits, which Ms. Kuster said, “has prevented survivors from seeking justice.”

Ms. Kuster said the law “was not intended to protect dating apps when they fail to address known flaws that facilitate sexual violence.”

She wants the apps to take stronger steps to banish sex offenders and other predators from the sites.

Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and OkCupid are among the top online dating apps, along with Match Dating, Badoo, Grindr and Coffee Meets Bagel.

Tinder’s terms of use prohibit sex offenders and convicted felons, but the company does not screen every user to ensure sex offenders aren’t using the site.

Tinder did not immediately return a request for a comment about the policy.

Match Group, the company that operates Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and other dating apps, recently ended a partnership with Garbo, a nonprofit that briefly operated a background check tool for Tinder.

A company spokeswoman told The Washington Times that Match Group “has identified a new provider to offer users the option to utilize a low-cost, accessible way for users to gain information about their connections to better inform dating decisions, enhance safety, and empower users as they navigate online dating.”

Users will soon be able to sign up for the service in the app, the spokeswoman said.

Match Group screens for sex offenders using state-provided lists for its Match dating app but the screening policy does not appear to extend to the free versions of the apps and doesn’t apply to Tinder.

Match Group officials said company brands “use a network of industry-leading automated and manual moderation and review tools, technologies, processes and policies – and spend millions of dollars annually — to prevent, detect and remove people who engage in inappropriate behavior on our apps.”

Grindr, a dating app for the LGBTQ community, said it does not conduct criminal or sex offender background screenings but reserves the right to conduct them “at any time and to use available public records for any purpose.”

Sex assaults connected to dating apps are a significant problem, one study found.

Researchers from Brigham Young University in Utah analyzed the records of almost 3,400 sexual assault victims between 2017 and 2020 and found 274 attacks occurred after meeting on a dating app. Many of the victims were college students and people with self-reported mental illness. The study also found dating app sexual assaults were more violent than assaults that occur on dates that did not use online apps.

Researchers said the increased violent nature of dating app sexual assaults showed sexual predators are using the apps “as hunting grounds for vulnerable victims.”

Some of the dating app victims are children.

In 2023, the sheriff’s office in Hernando County, Florida, arrested 56-year-old James Peter Houllis for taking captive a runaway teenage girl he met and groomed on a dating site.

Sheriff Al Nienhuis refused to identify the dating app but said Mr. Houllis, who is charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, and human trafficking, used a dating app to lure a second victim, an adult female, whom he groomed online while she was still a juvenile.

Mr. Houllis is accused of selling the adult victim for sex to various men in Colorado.

“Definitely a sick individual to say the least,” Sheriff Nienhuis said.

On April 29, Mr. Houllis was charged with soliciting an inmate to kill one of the witnesses in the case. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 15.

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.