Selling visibility-boosts on dating apps: a problematic practice?

Ethics and Information Technology 25 (2):1-8 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Love, sex, and physical intimacy are some of the most desired goods in life and they are increasingly being sought on dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble, and Badoo. For those who want a leg up in the chase for other people’s attention, almost all of these apps now offer the option of paying a fee to boost one’s visibility for a certain amount of time, which may range from 30 min to a few hours. In this article, I argue that there are strong moral grounds and, in countries with laws against unconscionable contracts, legal ones for thinking that the sale of such visibility boosts should be regulated, if not banned altogether. To do so, I raise two objections against their unfettered sale, namely that it exploits the impaired autonomy of certain users and that it creates socio-economic injustices.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Instructions for Authors.[author unknown] - 2000 - Ethics and Information Technology 2 (4):257-260.
Instructions for Authors.[author unknown] - 2001 - Ethics and Information Technology 3 (4):303-306.
Instructions for Authors.[author unknown] - 2001 - Ethics and Information Technology 3 (2):151-154.
Instructions for authors.[author unknown] - 2002 - Ethics and Information Technology 4 (1):93-96.
Instructions for Authors.[author unknown] - 2003 - Ethics and Information Technology 5 (4):239-242.
Instructions for Authors.[author unknown] - 1999 - Ethics and Information Technology 1 (1):87-90.
Editorial.[author unknown] - 2005 - Ethics and Information Technology 7 (2):49-49.
Governing (ir)responsibilities for future military AI systems.Liselotte Polderman - 2023 - Ethics and Information Technology 25 (1):1-4.
Correction to: the Ethics of AI in Human Resources.Evgeni Aizenberg & Matthew J. Dennis - 2023 - Ethics and Information Technology 25 (1):1-1.
Philosophy and computing. An introduction, Luciano Floridi.Lorenzo Magnai - 2000 - Ethics and Information Technology 2 (2):137-138.
Luciano Floridi, philosophy and computing: An introduction. [REVIEW]Anthony F. Beavers - 2001 - Ethics and Information Technology 3 (4):299-301.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-05-19

Downloads
16 (#774,541)

6 months
9 (#144,939)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Bouke de Vries
Ghent University

Citations of this work

State-Run Dating Apps: Are They Morally Desirable?Bouke de Vries - 2024 - Philosophy and Technology 37 (1):1-21.

Add more citations

References found in this work

A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition.John Rawls - 1999 - Harvard University Press.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia.Robert Nozick - 1974 - Philosophy 52 (199):102-105.
A theory of human motivation.A. H. Maslow - 1943 - Psychological Review 50 (4):370-396.

View all 7 references / Add more references