Internet dating puts women off guard

Fairfax Media

STRANGER DANGER: Women are being warned to take care when meeting people they have chatted to on the internet after a number of attacks.

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Women are being lured into danger through internet dating sites.

The Auckland Sexual Abuse Help Foundation says attacks from first time meetings through internet dating are increasing.

Many of the women who report assaults after internet dates have just met their attacker that day.

"The reality is that women don’t really know their internet dates," crisis services manager Kate Brady Kean says.

"By removing their usual defences women are leaving themselves open to assault."

Women who report assaults after internet dating say they have known the man for just hours or weeks.

"But really they have just physically met that evening.

"A woman’s first response is often: ‘I can’t believe he did this, he seemed like such a nice man’."

Ms Brady Kean says people in an internet relationship tend to feel they know the person they are meeting and may show more trust in them from the first meeting.

The foundation is calling for more research into the impacts of internet dating to determine whether there are more people taking part, and whether women’s usual defences are not as prevalent when internet dating.

There is also a reported increase in the numbers of women abused or assaulted by someone known to them, in their own home.

For more information go to www.asah.org.nz or call 623-1700.