Australia Is Turning Dating Safety Into a Legal Duty. Here Is What It Costs.

Australia's government has confirmed that dating apps, Hinge among them, will fall under its proposed digital duty of care. The exposure draft was released on September 8 and consultation closed on September 22. Communications Minister Anika Wells said the law would require platforms to "identify risks on their platform and mitigate against those risks." Draft legislation is expected next month.

What the duty requires

According to the exposure draft, as summarised by law firm Clayton Utz, covered services would have to give users specified safety controls, complete a written risk assessment every year covering foreseeable harms and how they are mitigated, keep those assessments for six years and hand them to the eSafety Commissioner within 30 days of a request, and put documented mitigations in place. Corporate penalties reach about A$109 million. Most provisions start 12 months after the law passes.

Why now

The industry already had a voluntary answer. A dating industry code, written at the government's request and signed by Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Grindr, eHarmony, MeetMe, Plenty of Fish and others, came into force in April 2025. Moving dating into a statutory duty is the government's verdict on that experiment. The evidence it cites is stark: research by the Behavioural Insights Team, funded by the Minderoo Foundation, found 99% of 1,008 heterosexual women surveyed had experienced at least one harmful behaviour in three months, including 88% who received unsolicited sexual images or pressure for sexual content.

The part operators should read twice

The duty is framed around foreseeable risk, and that cuts both ways. The Canberra Times reported on a verified Hinge user banned for a year after what she believes was a malicious "revenge report." Independent MP Zali Steggall called malicious reporting "a foreseeable risk that the government should require platforms to address." Under a duty of care, unfair bans with no working appeal become a documented risk too.

Why it matters: Written safety risk assessments are becoming the global norm: the UK's Online Safety Act, the EU's Digital Services Act, now Australia, and in the same week the U.S. passed its first federal dating-app rule. Operators selling internationally should build one safety framework that satisfies all of them. The real cost isn't the fine. It's the annual documentation, the moderation headcount and an appeals process that stands up to a regulator.

Sources: Clayton Utz on the exposure draft · ABC News · The Canberra Times · Australian government on the dating code