Future Sex
October 2021
Hi Caddyshackers,
This month we welcome back guest blogger Jen, who’s been ruminating on a few things.
What is the future for online dating & safe sex?
Did you hear about the new(ish) app NeatClub (now called Ashkah Shah after the founder) which is a dating app with STI verification, set to rival Tinder? Nope we didn’t either. It’s promoted as a club for people who love having sex, but like to have sex safely to reduce the risk of getting infected by STIs. So far, so good.
The process is you get tested for the STIs as recommended by the app every four months and get certified results including HIV, Herpes, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Syphilis, Hepatitis A, B. You provide authorization to the app and permission to collect your information. The app folks will then do the legwork of collecting the test result and verifying it.
Straddling (couldn’t resist that pun) the medical data space and social space, it seems like a great idea.
You get to protect yourself from people who have tested positive for STIs, but are not disclosing their status. Happens. Or a lot of people don’t know their STI status because they are not testing regularly enough or not at all.
We all know that condoms are great but not always enough protection, as you can still get an STI from skin to skin contact and oral sex. What about getting infections from people who are asymptomatic (meaning they don’t show any symptoms) and don’t know that they have an STI, like chlamydia?
Ashka designed the app to remove awkwardness and make it easy to share test results without killing the romance. Fair enough, totally get that. And yet a solid google around this shows very little activity since 2017, including one unavailable YouTube clip and 7 tweets and nowhere to actually download the app.
As a start-up, did the idea just not get enough backing or is it an idea whose time is actually too early and for now not high on the acceptability/usability scale? Will COVID help with the future acceptability of such an app?
To flip the whole concept, there are already dating apps for people who do have STIs. To date (aaaand again) Positive Singles has almost 2 million users.
Tinder, Bumble and Grindr have transformed the way people date and have sex, providing access to wider networks of people with a swipe. It’s not about blaming apps, people have always been having sex and will continue to do so.
Fast forward
The future probably holds even smarter tech interface that will allow us to scan people for all sorts of things (an ethical and legal minefield…just sayin’).
Conversely Apps such as these will have their detractors. People living with an STI who prefer to negotiate the dating and hook up space without having to prove their status. Like any aspect of yourself, you don’t have to disclose to everyone, and when you do disclose, it should be when you’re comfortable doing so.
Wrapping up this thought bubble
I do like a good metaphor. So… would we want or approve of an app that provided your status for other areas of your life? Living with cancer, a disability or an auto immune disease? People have started to out their COVID vax status on their profiles. Soon, choice may be removed around this.
There are no easy answers, other than to, as ever, treat one another with the respect, dignity and kindness that we all deserve when navigating any sensitive space and to be super clear around language and the very big difference between compulsory and conditional.
What we are loving right now
Speaking of being online, did you catch Sticky Stuff webinar in May?
Not to worry, Sticky Stuff is back!
Register for the October session now!
Tuesday 26th October at 10.30am for two hours.
Sticky Stuff aims to increase confidence, knowledge and skills of all participants around the area of sexual health by providing workers with tools, valuable tips and activities to support young people.
Sticky Stuff is a collaboration between Yfoundations, NSW Health’s STI Programs Unit and NSW Health Promotion. Sticky Stuff is delivered in 30 locations across NSW annually.
As always,
Peace, Love & Protection
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