Younger women who have used dating sites or apps are especially likely to report having negative interactions with others on these platforms % of online dating users in each group who say someone on a dating site or app
Roughly three-in-ten or more online dating users say someone through a dating site or app continued to contact them after they said they were not interested (37%), sent them a sexually explicit message or image they didn’t ask for (35%) or called them an offensive name (28%). Fewer online daters say someone via a dating site or app has threatened to physically harm them.
Younger women are particularly likely to encounter each of these behaviors. Six-in-ten female online dating users ages 18 to 34 say someone via a dating site or app continued to contact them after they said they were not interested, while 57% report that another user has sent them a sexually explicit message or image they didn’t ask for. Other negative interactions are more violent in nature: 19% of younger female users say someone on a dating site or app has threatened to physically harm them – roughly twice the rate of men in the same age range who say this.
Younger women who have used dating sites or apps are especially likely to report  | having negative interactions with others on these platforms  | % of online dating users in each group who say someone on a dating site or app  | Continued to contact  | Sent them a sexually  | Threatened to  | them safter saying they  | explicit message or  | Called them an  | physically  | image they didn't ask for  | offensive name  | harm them  | were not interested  | Online dating users  | 35%  | 28%  | 9%  | 37%  | Men  | 27  | 26  | 22  | 48  | 46  | 33  | 11  | Women  | Ages 18-34  | 42  | 13  | 43  | 33  | 35-49  | 36  | 37  | 30  | 8  | 50+  | 29  | 22  | 15  | 3  | Men 18-34  | 27  | 28  | 23  | 9  | Women 18-34  | 57  | 44  | 19  | 60  | Men 35-49  | 24  | 25  | 26  | Women 35-49  | 49  | 53  | 34  | 10  | Men 50+  | 24  | 15  | 27  | 3  | 13  | Women 50+  | 29  | 20  | 2  | Note: Online dating users refers to respondents who say they have fever used an online dating site or app. Those who did not give an answer  | are not shown.  | Source: Survey of U.S adults conducted Oct. 16 28, 2019  | "The Virtues Survey and Downsides of Online Dating"  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 