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The move shakes things up for Britain's 11.1 million dating app users, many of whom are used to swiping right on trains.
While most commuters spend their train journeys to work glued to their phones, Northern, a train-operating company in the U.K., has axed access to dating apps and matchmaking sites through its onboard Wi-Fi service.
The move, which seeks to make browsing online safer for its youngest passengers, shakes things up for many of Britain's 11.1 million dating app users and singles hoping to find love online. The new rule has been put into force as part of Northern's "friendly WiFi" scheme, which intends to filter out potentially inappropriate digital content for its passengers.
Trevor Evers, a media relations manager at Northern, told Newsweek: "That scheme is delivered in partnership with the U.K. Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), which is something we think is very important to support."
The "friendly WiFi" scheme was rolled out to safeguard vulnerable passengers, particularly children, who use the free service on board from online content that contains adult themes and can be harmful.
"We welcome millions of people on-board our trains every year and access to safe and reliable internet is part and parcel of our customers' expectations," Matt Rice, the chief operating officer at Northern, said in a news statement on September 16. "Whilst some dating websites—and users—will operate with appropriate levels of self-moderation, some might not and it's important that content not suitable for everyone to see or hear—particularly children—isn't viewed on our trains."
Evers added, "For us, the dating app category, which is one of several categories that the system blocks, was a good way to highlight the
issue."
In recent years, legislators in the U.K. have made changes to how young and vulnerable people engage with content online by policing the internet. The Online Safety Act was passed into law in October 2023, allowing the suppression of online media deemed harmful.
Ofcom, the British broadcasting regulator, is working on codes of practice to help it enforce the rules, although they will not begin to take effect until 2025.
Campaigner Ian Russell contributed to the establishment of an online safety bill after his daughter died by suicide in 2017. Molly Russell, from London, was 14 and had seen self-harm and suicide content on social media sites.
An inquest into the teenager's death concluded on September 30, 2022, and it found that Molly had died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.
Although social media firms and U.K. legislative powers are doing more to keep a watchful eye, the digital world continues to house dangerous content that could fall into the lap of children. Northern wants to stand in the way of this, but there are also other reasons behind its decision to block dating sites from its free onboard Wi-Fi service.
"It's simply about ensuring that there is sufficient bandwidth for all our customers to use while they're on the go," Rice said in the statement.
Although executives at Northern are keen to keep dating apps beyond the reach of their underage passengers, they hope that their customers can get back to swiping right after they disembark their trains.
Rice said, "This on-board dating app embargo aside, we wish our single customers all the best in their search for their perfect partner."
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