Sex disease surge in US state partly blamed on hook-up apps

‪Tinder, Grindr and other mobile "hook-up" apps have been blamed for a spike in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the US state of Rhode Island.‬ From 2013 to 2014, infections of syphilis increased by 79 per cent, gonorrhea cases rose 30 per cent and new HIV diagnosis increased by about a third, according to data from the …

[Anonymous Coward]

All the others are smoke screens "having sex without a condom" is the primary culprit

[Khaptain]

I would suggest that having sex with the wrong people is the primary culprit....

The problem lies with the fact that you do not get to know in advance who the good ones are...

[TRT]

the good ones are the ones not using easy hook-up apps.

[Warm Braw]

"The good ones"

That's only something you only ever get to know for sure when it's too late...

[dogged]

All those "abstinence only" schools are clearly innocent of any culpability.

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah

all 5 of them. nevermind the millions of dollars per year spent on the exact opposite.

[Zoopy]

<blockquote>All those "abstinence only" schools are clearly innocent of any culpability.</blockquote>

You mean, their advice was followed and yet the students got STD's anyway? If so, scientists need to know about this!

[Suricou Raven]

Trying to stop STIs by telling people to stop having sex is like trying to stop obesity by telling people to eat less. It would be good advice if they followed it - and very few will.

[Graham Bartlett]

In the same way as every kid who's just got their license drives like they did when their instructor/parent was in the car with them. They'll swear blind that they will, and then they'll swear blind afterwards that they stuck to the speed limit. And anyone who believes them is an idiot.

And the "abstinence-only" stuff just makes it worse, because then you're handing the keys to someone who hasn't even been taught basic safety. Like car crashes, ignorance is more likely to get you into an accident than to keep you out of one.

[Anonymous Coward]

"having sex without a condom"

Sometimes these people might be using the condom in the wrong way - when it comes to internet hookups, a condom over the Ethernet cable just works (TM), however the same technique applied to wireless just does not work.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are virile enough for a second pop, surely you just turn the used condom inside out?

[Laura Kerr]

"Having sex without a condom" is the primary culprit

Quite right, but it must say a bit about the intelligence of the people using hook-up apps, if they think they don't need to skin up properly when banging a random stranger they've only just met. Or they overlook the fact that statistically, someone using such an app is much more likely to have the clap in the first place.

[Graham Marsden]

@Laura Kerr - Re: "Having sex without a condom" is the primary culprit

> it must say a bit about the intelligence of the people using hook-up apps, if they think they don't need to skin up properly

That's not necessarily a failure in intelligence, it may well be a failure in education.

As has already been mentioned, the "abstinence only" nonsense has been shown to put those who undergo it at greater risk because when the wheels (or underwear!) comes off, they don't have the knowledge of how to protect themselves from STIs.

Then, of course, you have certain religions who teach that using a condom is wrong (even though even the Vatican has accepted that it's ok to use one to avoid catching HIV) or those in such religions who blatantly lie and claim that they won't prevent against such infections.

It's shocking that there are people in this world who will quite happily put others at risk simply to try to enforce their religious "principles" :-(

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: @Laura Kerr - "Having sex without a condom" is the primary culprit

Quote from a lady in the middle of an unplanned pregnancy:

"I got caught short in a moment of lust."

Education is better than pushing abstinence, lust will always win and it is better to know what works beforehand.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ AC

I wore a condom and still caught an STD:

STD with condom

[Anonymous Coward]

That picture...

If dating apps included that picture with "careful what you wake up next too", we may see a dramatic drop in STD's...

[Anonymous Coward]

@ AC I wore a condom and still caught an STD: STD with condom

What's the betting that he was the first person to contract an STD on his lower lip....

[Anonymous Coward]

We've given the machines another avenue to attack us!

They're probably just jealous that they can't get a little leg too.

[Caustic tWit]

App Clap

There, done...

[TRT]

Re: App Clap

A swing on the clap-o-meter there.

[thomas k.]

Re: App Clap

Argh! Ninja'd by Caustic.

[frank ly]

Just an idea ......

Maybe some of the public health budget should be spent on developing 'interesting' personal communications applications for the Occulus Rift (etc). Then the kids and big kids would stay at home and be safe.

[Elmer Phud]

Re: Just an idea ......

Net Nanny Nookie -- a slip between the sheets of the A/V and you've got a virus.

[LucreLout]

Don't die of ignorance...

... once of the single most effective public health campaigns ever. Sadly canned due to concerns over stigmatisation of people with aids. Perhaps its time for something similarly hard hitting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't die of ignorance...

Perhaps "Don't be a stupid fucker"?

Or alternatively, mandate that all clap-apps dedicate 25% of the screen estate to dire warnings about unsafe sex, to emulate the resounding success this had with fag packets.

Hmm. I seem to remember seeing a brand of cigarettes called 'Death Cigarettes', which dedicated the entire pack to grave warnings, to appeal to the contrary. As the mandated area of dire warnings grew, they could have instead put little pictures of fluffy bunnies or something on an equivalent area. At least, until it exceeds 50%.

[nilfs2]

Want easy sex? Get STDs

Easy sex and STDs are usually tied together, hard to get one without the other, it's just common sense.

[Filippo]

Whoa. This means that those apps actually work.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, it has always worked. It's just that now you don't go to the pub, you just fire up an app and select an extremely dumb chick that wants to fuck with strangers.

[wayne 8]

extremely dumb dudes

extremely dumb dudes looking for extremely dumb chicks.

Recipe for undesirable consequences.

[Fair Dinkum]

Re: extremely dumb dudes

.. such as extremely dumb offspring.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: extremely dumb dudes

".....such as extremely dumb offspring."

Who will grow up and become the new generation of "Find me a Fuck" application users....

Full circle, life's a bitch

[Suricou Raven]

I too am very surprised at this - and if this story is picked up by wider news sites, I expect the apps to gain in popularity.

[Anonymous Coward]

millions a year on "education" for just this sort of thing

and rates just go up. Perhaps there is a limit to how much funding one can throw at bus stop billboards and trendy advertising spots and see any effectiveness.

Perhaps time to go from "educating" (is there actually anyone who isn't aware of STD's and prevention but simply *chooses* to disregard that knowledge?) and start adding some FEAR perhaps.

if people won't learn, scare 'em? Like "we" do with all sorts of politically incorrect or inconvenient behaviors already?

[nilfs2]

Population control

If you get an STD for being out shagging indiscriminately, you will not have luck finding a partner to procreate; I guess it is a good thing for humanity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Population control

Unfortunately a lot of people with AIDS don't seem to understand this point of view.

[Shonko Kid]

Missing an opportunity here

If these apps are leading to an increase in promiscuity, and an associated rise in STDs, then surely they are also in a great position (F'Nar!) to track hook-ups, so that past partners could be warned, and the infection could be tracked back to source? You'd have to work out how best to remove the stigma of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Missing an opportunity here

Those are some fun conversations to listen in on.

[Ammaross Danan]

Yep

iClapApp

That is all.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Yep

iClap, a deeply fashionable but ultimately under spec over priced STD

AppiClapi, one for the more enthusiastic religious types

CopyClap, or ClapiLike, the result of sharing friends on a social network and copying them in on postings

[Rusty 1]

Re: Yep

You'll be needing the dClapApp in due course.

[herman]

Well, this add yet another wrinkle to bit banging interfaces.

[phil dude]

a poll please?

Can we have a poll please, how many people commenting here have actually used one of these apps?

In the style of maths reporting (Erdos number), if you have a friend (ahem!) that uses one and you are basing your comment on their experience, say +1.

I am +1, but I have visited the places with loads of zeros....

Beer icon, because that works just as well...

P.

[Kharkov]

How about an app for this?

For the Public's health, perhaps we should have a mandatory app installed on all smartphones.

"You appear to be trying to get it on. Would you...

A: Like some helpful suggestions or advice for that?

B: Like to take a moment to review your partner's extrapolated sexual history, as derived by an algorithm that studies Facebook, Twitter, and previous credit card purchases?

or C: Like to confirm that you are using a condom?

"Hmm, activity seems to have dropped by 90% Perhaps some music to rekindle the mood?

Bow-Chicka-Bow-wow, Chicka-wow"

[Stevie]

Bah!

One should always don a finger stool before giving anyone a "poke".

[mathew42]

Meanwhile in Australia, gays are campaigning for PrEP a drug which can reduce the risk of infection by up to 90 per cent to have PrEP added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), making it government supervised.

"Mr Spencer, 23, admits to occasionally having sex without a condom but says he feels much more relaxed about it since he began using PrEP."

I'm not convinced that government money should go towards encouraging risky behaviour.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-28/prep-five-perspectives-on-the-hiv-prevention-pill/6502124

[Anonymous Coward]

According to www.aids.gov, Anal sex is the most common reason for the spread of AIDS..and since Gays have no other options, in relation to penetration, I for one would be praying for strongly that those Prep pills weren't actually just placebos....

You can be sure that the manufacturers will be wording the instructions very carefuly, especially the liability clause...

In my twenties I was a rampant pit bull until I learned about Aids. From one day to the next I gave up the pub encounters. As much as I love women I wasn't willing to pay that price just for some casual sex... I have still never understood why so many others chose to ignore the dangers.

Neil Young once sang "It's better to burn it than it is to rust", I would happily change the words to "It's better to bag up before you thrust".

[Suricou Raven]

Where does it say that? Heterosexual transmission overlook homosexual a long time ago, and far outpaces it now.

Perhaps it means 'within the US.' That sounds more plausible.

If you think gays have no other options, your sexual imagination is very limited. Oral sex works perfectly well regardless of gender.

[DocJames]

I think it's fair to say that heterosexual transmission has always far outweighed homosexual transmission, it just took a while to start caring about Africans. Improving now though. And we're even including women in studies!

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you consider oral sex as being on the same parallel as anal penetration ? I sincerely hope not, for everyone's sake...

[DocJames]

RE: Sex disease surge in US state partly blamed on hook-up apps

Do you consider oral sex as being on the same parallel as anal penetration ? I sincerely hope not, for everyone's sake...

I reiterate the suggestion that minds should be broadened. And suggest that if you had a broader experience of life (not necessarily personally - just listening to others) you might be more tolerant of others' choices.

OTOH, if you are referring to risk of HIV transmission, you're right: about 10x less (comparing receptive v receptive, penetrative v penetrative obviously)

[squigbobble]

But...

...oral herpes, oral gonorrhoea, HPV-induced oral cancer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: But...

"...oral herpes, oral gonorrhoea, HPV-induced oral cancer..."

So that's why Cadbury's, Hershey's for the Yankee market, "Chocolate covered anacondas" never made a big success.

[Anonymous Coward]

"and since Gays have no other options"

Why would people called "Gay" be more or less restricted than anyone else in that respect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because people called "Gay" don't need to make visits to the Gynaecologist... whereas their Greek Island counterparts do.

[Michael Strorm]

Stock photo libraries- First with *the* most cutting-edge tech!

I like the thumbnail El Reg chose to illustrate the front page headline box:-

https://regmedia.co.uk/2013/02/28/mobile_girl.jpg?x=198&y=131&crop=1

Since that phone looks suspiciously like a Nokia 3310 (*), I doubt she's going to be accessing many hook-up apps on it ;-)

Then again, sincere apologies for the mockery if I'm mistaken and that's actually a 3330 (**) she's using to access the WAP version of Tinder on. (^_^)

(*) CSI-style magic enlargement:- http://www.randomswill.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/121886_90761.jpg

(**) Though I doubt that- IIRC the 3330 had a dark-blue coloured screen-surround...

[imanidiot]

More sex means more STDs

Who knew??

[Allan George Dyer]

Not new

People communicate => people hook up => people spread diseases

I recall a New Scientist article in the early '80s about CB radio having a similar effect.