Dating Trade Body ODDA Sets Up a Consumer Safety Panel
Romance fraud survivors, everyday users, experts and advocates will advise member companies on safety features and help shape ODDA's standards.
The Online Dating and Discovery Association (ODDA), the trade body for dating and social discovery companies, launched a Consumer Safety Panel on October 8 at its annual conference in London, during Romance Abuse Awareness Week. The panel is meant to let the people who use dating services help shape the sector's safety standards.
It will have 12 to 16 members drawn from four groups: people with lived experience of romance fraud or abuse, everyday users, independent experts, and advocates. Founding members are author and romance fraud expert Becky Holmes; Olivier Kraft, a financial crime specialist at Proud Against Fraud; entrepreneur and LGBT+ activist Jamie Love; and Melanie Graham, author of Chosen and a campaigner. ODDA will co-facilitate the panel with Anna Rowe, co-founder of LoveSaid, and the panel is the first pilot of her Romance Abuse Framework, which ODDA has endorsed.
ODDA members can consult the panel to test new safety features and policies and to learn from people affected by fraud and abuse. Its input will feed into ODDA's standards, policy positions and research. The panel meets for the first time in the coming weeks.
"Our members work every day to keep people safe. Those standards are stronger when the people they protect help write them," said ODDA CEO Simon Newman.
Why it matters: Regulators in the UK and Australia now treat dating safety as a compliance question, and they increasingly ask what evidence sits behind a platform's safety choices. A standing panel of users and fraud survivors gives member companies a fast, low-cost way to test features before launch and a record of consultation to point to. Smaller operators without in-house trust and safety research get the most from it.
Sources: ODDA announcement
Key takeaways
- 01ODDA launched a Consumer Safety Panel of 12 to 16 users, fraud and abuse survivors, experts and advocates.
- 02Member companies can consult it on new safety features and policies; its input will inform ODDA standards.
- 03The panel is co-facilitated with LoveSaid co-founder Anna Rowe and meets for the first time in the coming weeks.
Reviewed by an operator. Last updated October 14, 2026. High Intent is led by founder and CEO Bill Alena, backed by a team of industry experts with over 100 years of online dating experience between them.
Sources
- ODDA announcement · Theodda
High Intent operates consumer dating brands and a white-label dating platform.
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