A California state Senate public safety committee has passed a bill requiring online dating services to run background checks on users, with specific actions to be taken if a user is found to be a registered sex offender or convicted of certain violent crimes. The bill's author, state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, cites a 2019 survey finding that over a third of women polled said they were sexually assaulted or raped by someone they met on a dating app. If passed, the policy would require dating platforms to collect personal data and "flag" users' profiles if they meet certain criteria, but the bill's sponsor plans to amend it in response to criticism from lawmakers and industry groups. The measure now advances to the state Senate's privacy committee, where it is set to be reviewed on April 20.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
California's Senate public safety committee passed a bill requiring online dating services to conduct background checks on California users. The bill aims to prevent violence against women and others by identifying registered sex offenders or individuals with violent felony convictions. If a user is flagged, their profile will be marked to alert others. Critics argue that this measure would unfairly label certain users, while supporters say it's necessary to protect people from harm. State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, the bill's author, cited recent cases of violence against women who met their perpetrators on dating apps as motivation for the proposal. However, some industry representatives, such as TechNet's Jose Torres, have raised concerns about data collection and potential misidentification.
Written for “California Dating App Safety Law” on 2026-09-05,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
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Leaning score withheld for article 4128: score contradicts its own evidence · logged 2026-09-04
The Markup, now a part of CalMatters, uses investigative reporting, data analysis, and software engineering to challenge technology to serve the public good.
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Markup → use → good
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A California bill to protect people on online dating apps from violence has critics arguing that the measure would put a “scarlet letter” on certain users.
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measure → protect → users
But that’s a feature, not a bug in the proposal.
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The state Senate’s public safety committee this week passed a bill that would require online dating services to run criminal background checks on California users.
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that → pass → users
If the user is a registered sex offender or has been convicted of a violent felony, domestic violence, an assault or a hate crime, the dating service must “place a flag” on the user’s profile to let others know.
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others → register → profile
Dating App Cover-Up: How Tinder, Hinge, and Their Corporate Owner Keep Rape Under Wraps
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The company behind more than a dozen dating apps, Match Group, has known for years about the abusive users on its platforms, but chooses to leave millions of people in the dark
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Bill author, state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, said that “dating apps have not provided an adequate level of safety for their users.”
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At the hearing she cited a 2019 Columbia Journalism Investigations survey that found that more than a third of women polled said they were sexually assaulted or raped by someone they met on a dating app.
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The Markup last year published an investigation that showed people accused of sexual violence managed to stay on the apps even after victims reported them.
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Menjivar, a Van Nuys Democrat, added: “If women, mostly women, continue to be raped or murdered — like another woman (who) was murdered and her body was set on fire last year after a man met her on a dating app — those are the incidents we’re looking to prevent.”
But besides labeling users with a “scarlet letter,” implementing the policy would require dating platforms to collect a significant amount of personal data to avoid misidentifying users, argued Jose Torres, a deputy executive director for the industry group TechNet.
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In a rare break with his Democratic colleagues, Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco voted against the bill, saying it might have “significant unintended consequences in terms of people’s privacy.”
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But Wiener’s opposition, along with Republican Sen. Kelly Seyarto of Murrieta, was not enough to stop the bill from advancing out of the six-member committee, according to the Digital Democracy database from CalMatters, of which The Markup is a part.
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With four Democratic lawmakers giving the green light, Menjivar said she plans to amend the measure in response to criticism related to the categories of crime and operational challenges — and that legislators are “going to see a dramatically different bill” when it’s presented to the privacy committee on April 20.
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